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2014-2015

December

January - February

March

SC Winter Beekeeping

Winter management begins in December and goes thru March up to the nectar flow. Generally, the

beekeeper should:

Be looking for diseases

Making sure the colony has enough “honey” and feeding if necessary

Ordering last minute queens / NUCs / packages

Ensure that excess water vapor from consumed “honey” is evaporated out of the hive

Making sure the queen starts laying in the December / January time frame and builds up

consistently and normally

Swarm control measures starting the end of February / first of March

December

Starting about mid-December

the queen should start laying.

Some colonies in South Carolina

the queen will just reduce her

egg laying in the November /

December time frame and you

will have brood in the colony

year round. You need to check

the colony for honey typically

by lifting the back or side of the

hive to determine if it feels

heavy. A light hive, about the

weight of the woodenware,

should be fed internally. Do

not use a Boardman feeder or

division board/frame feeder

since the cluster may not have

access to the syrup when it is

cold. Bees cluster at 57

degrees F., so you should

inspect your hives when the

external temperature is about

60 degrees F. The entrance

reducer should be on the

smallest opening. IPM bottom

boards, that are open and

screened on the bottom, I

typically leave open. It rarely

gets into the low 20’s at night

and the bees have been shown

to survive in much colder

temperatures. A twig should

be placed between the inner

cover and outer cover to vent

excess moisture from honey

consumption.

The bees have to maintain a 94-

97 degree F temperature in the

brood cluster. On a cold day if

the cluster is broken, they will

have difficulty reforming the

cluster. That is why the

temperature should be about

60 degrees when you inspect

the colony.One inspection mid-

December is typically enough

Hive Entrance

The bees will typically fly when temperatures are above about 50 degrees F.

Observe the hive entrance, to see if you see the following:

The bees are flying

If the bees are flying, are they bringing in pollen, which indicates that

brood is being raised inside the colony.

There is a correct number of guard bees and bee activity at the

entrance for the time of the year.

Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use.

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Winter Management December ……..Continued

January

Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use.

Make those last minute bee and queen purchases this month. Also, this month you should continue

repairing old equipment and assembling / painting any new equipment that you will need. Arranging

for any additional out yards should also be done no later than this month since you will need time to

prep the new out yard.

Corona Apicultores—Facebook

December & January Task

Task for December, plus you should open the colony in Mid-January, when the temperature is above

60 degrees F to check for:

Enough honey & pollen

Queen laying with brood. Check the brood for presence of American Foulbrood (AFB). Check for Varroa.

There will probably not be any Drone brood in January that you can inspect.

Treat if necessary for Varroa or AFB. If you have AFB I recommend burning the hive.

Check for other diseases and take necessary action. In South Carolina we typically do not have issues

with dysentery since the bees are able to fly frequently and defecate.

The Maples should start to bloom the end of January to first of February. You should be on the look for this and on warm days

ensure that your colonies are bringing in pollen. This verifies that the queen is indeed laying and there is brood present in the

colony.

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February

In February, ensure there is honey, pollen, disease free, and brood. This is when the colony needs the resources to ramp up for

Spring. Brood rearing kicks into high gear around the end of February to first of March. Inspecting every two weeks the first of

February and every 1-2 weeks the end of February depending on the season.

Swarming conditions should be examined at the end of February. The colony typically can swarm any time after the Drones start

flying the end of February to first of March. Swarm conditions are indicated in congestion in the brood nest. If the bees are wall

to wall in the brood nest then you need to relieve this congestion by accomplishing one of the following:

Removing frames and making up a NUC. Make sure all

colonies are disease free. It is usually considered better

to install a new queen rather than letting the “SPLIT”

raise their own queen. This will impact your honey

yield. When you let the colony raise their own queen it

takes approximately 12-16 days to raise the queen

( you can shorten this time by using a queen cell) + a

week or ten days or so for the virgin queen to mate +

21 days for the worker brood to hatch. So, you are

looking at six or so weeks to get workers which put you

into mid-April.

Pagdening - In the Pagden method, the

hive that is intending to swarm has a

frame of brood together with the queen

removed and placed into another brood chamber filled with drawn

comb or foundation. This ‘new hive’ is put on the old site and the

‘parent’ hive containing the rest of the brood and bees moved to

one side. The supers can go back to the old site too, as the forag-

ers will rejoin the queen and, as there is little brood to feed, can

store what they bring in. There will be a shortage of young bees in

with the queen and so they will give up their

inclination to swarm. The old parent part of

the colony raises themselves another queen

and the field force comes into the new hive

believing they have swarmed.

Removing frames and

equalizing all your colonies;

i.e. place the frames from

the strong colony in a weak

colony.

Weak Hive Strong Hive frames of brood with nurse bees

Demaree - simulating swarming in one hive.

You will keep all your workers in the same hive.

super

deep

Brood/deep box

Queen

Excluder

3 or 4 Frames

from brood Box

replace brood

frames w/drawn

comb

Some beekeepers cut swarm queen cells.

Most beekeepers cannot make this work

since they either miss a swarm queen cell

or the bees raise more swarm cells. This is

also very labor intensive.

Move 3 frames

of brood with

day old eggs

with 2 frames

of honey stores.

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Swapping locations of a strong colony with a weak colony resulting

in the weak colony receiving more field bees.

When you do swarm prevention measures, make sure both halves of the “split” have honey, pollen,

and eggs / day old larvae. Just adding an additional super above the brood nest will not relieve congestion in the brood nest. You have to use swarm prevention measures to relieve this brood nest congestion. Splitting simulates the bees natural swarming of one swarm a year from a strong colony. Splitting also implements a brood break which helps minimize your Varroa count. Swarm cells are typically toward the bottom of the brood

frames. You are looking for enlarged cells that hang

down from the frames and look like a “peanut in the

shell.” Empty queen cups on the frames are a poor

indicator of swarming.

February

March

In March ensure there is honey, pollen, disease free, and brood.

Honey quantity should be observed at least weekly and feed as

necessary. Colonies can go thru a deep frame or more of honey in a

week or less; especially toward the end of the month. Most of our

colonies that starve are in March. Checks of nectar flow occurrence

should occur toward the end of the month. I recommend that

honey supers be placed on hive the fourth week in March. It is

better to be ahead of the nectar flow than is late. Always look for

swarm conditions and take the necessary actions.

All medications should be removed from the hive the first of

March to middle of March depending on what you are treating

with.

There are 3 basic ways to detect a nectar flow.

1. The first way is opening the colony and seeing white

fresh comb on the edges of your drawn honey supers.

2. The second way is to visually inspect for fresh nectar in

the colony.

3. The third way is observing bees flying in and out with a

“sense of purpose.”

Last of March

White Honey Comb

(top left)

and

Nectar (lower right)

flying with a purpose

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David MacFawn Biography

David Elgie MacFawn:

He is a North Carolina Master Craftsman Beekeeper, Co-Founded the South

Carolina Master Beekeeping Program, awarded South Carolina Beekeeper of

the Year, assisted Dr. Fell at Virginia Tech in the Virginia Master Beekeeping Program, Incorporated

the South Carolina Beekeepers Association as a 501 C 3 Non Profit Corporation, and published sev-

eral (over five) articles in the American Bee Journal. David has kept bees in Maryland (Dark German

bees), Virginia (Italian), North Carolina (Italian), Colorado (Russian), and South Carolina (Italian

and Russian Hybrid).

David’s Work History:

David has a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration with concentra-

tions in Finance and Operations Research. David was in the computer business for over 30 years

and was a Customer Service director responsible for worldwide support planning, training/education,

logistics, call center support, and professional services at Sun Microsystems and a subset of this at

NCR. David was also a Federal Systems Product Manager responsible for new DOD system defini-

tion and development at Data General.

David’s Beekeeping Business Endeavors:

David is a beekeeping author and has co-authored a practical guide to beekeeping book, "Getting the

Best From Your Bees".

He also developed, marketed, and supported spreadsheets analyzing financial aspects of the honey

and pollination businesses, and beeswax candle production and sales.

David and his wife reside in the Columbia, South Carolina, and is an active sideline beekeeper.

Cynthia Robinson Bio

The Winter Management was edited and graphic layout created by Cynthia Robinson. Known as the

Beekeeper On Duty. Cynthia lives in Clover, SC with her husband. She has two grown married sons with

three grand children. Cynthia began beekeeping in 2005 with Sally Adams/Mamabeehive as her mentor.

Cynthia is a Journeyman Beekeeper and is now holding a SC State office as Secretary and acts as media

tech at all SC Conferences. Cynthia also serves as the Web Administrator for SC State Beekeepers

Association. Cynthia has published many beekeeping newsletters for local and currently produces the

State Association Newsletter.

Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use. All artwork & graphics was taken with permission from the web or was the personal property of Cynthia Robinson.

If you are interested in reprints of this document, please contact dmacfawn@aol.com or rainbowcirclehoneyfarm@gmail.com