Beekeeping

[Tathradj]

Thank you Les.
This one question I have with a KTB.
Should I establish the colony in the middle with followers and progressively
move out to each side. ?
Or, Establish in one end and then expand lengthwise.
I have looked at a few youtube presentations and the hives have side entrances
at one end with the rest of the hive full.
Yes, I know. You can run two hives at once in one.

 

[Lesgold]

Good question Doug. When I built my first top bar hive, I put entrances at both ends and also in the middle. Holes were drilled with a spade bit and champagne corks used to block the entrance holes not being used. This gave me flexibility to perform splits etc. The KTB hive is the best example of the structure I was talking about. Honey on the outside frames and brood in the middle etc. Because of that, I used a central entrance on the long side. This meant that the bees would come in via the brood area and then move left or right to deposit pollen or nectar. As the hive grew, the division board would be moved out and extra bars added. The bars could be added to the brood chamber or closer to the outside, depending on what you want to achieve. If you want to add some more laying space for the queen, move the frame of honey closest to the brood area to the outer edge of the hive and then move a couple of bars of brood along to make a space. For extra honey, add bars close to the outside of the new box area. The top bar hives are a tremendous way to keep bees in a back yard or if you only want one or two hives. It could be a good discussion topic on its own.

Cheers

Les

 

[Tathradj]

Thank You.
I will start shortly.
Maybe building through January finishing in Autumn
ready for next Spring.
I have set my sights on 3 locations, 2 hives in each with 2
more as standby.
Also 2 nuc's.

 

[Lesgold]

Thatll keep you busy mate. A good project to work on during the wet weekends. A couple of nucs is a god idea (to get those swarms caught and settled.)

 

[Straya]

Honey also helps keep a stable hive temperature which is essential for a hive

Your doing a top job being a mentor les gold. Educating people about bees helps us all in the long run. I was at a mates house on the weekend and somebody came up to me who I have previously informed about native bees and stopped some random weeks before killing flying ants that were flying into a crack in the bricks. erfect:

 

[Lesgold]

Hey Straya,

Thanks mate. You know Ive never even considered the importance of honey as a heat bank. You notice it every time you bring back a box of honey for extracting. The honey (and wax) holds its heat for hours. Sometimes the little things dont click until they are pointed out to you. I agree with you about letting people know a little more about bees and how important they are to us. Keep filling in the blanks Straya, my journey into this area is only starting. People like yourself with knowledge and experience can teach us so much.

Cheers

Les

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

You may remember a post about five days ago relating to a split that didnt have a laying queen. Although I was confident that a queen was present, a frame of larvae and eggs was added as a back up measure. Had a look at that hive today and examined the frame. This is what I saw:

The eggs all hatched and the young brood is now plump and healthy. What does this tell you? (No looking back trying to find the answer.) There are two possible senerios but one is more likely than the other. Will post the answer and the next step later this evening.

Cheers till then

Les

 

[MegsyB007]

Is that lighter coloured bee sitting at about 4 o'clock from the center of that circle the Queen?

 

[Lesgold]

Gee youre starting to notice things Megsy. Not a queen but at least you are looking for all sorts of signs. This time the visual clue has been given to you. Analyse what you see and use logic to come up with a possible answer.

 

[Tathradj]

There is new young brood capped.

 

[Lesgold]

Yes you are correct Doug but this was the frame of brood and eggs that was placed into the hive five days ago. Some of the brood was already capped when I put it into the hive and some was capped by the bees when it was added to the hive. The answer is in the circle. The uncapped brood that you now see was eggs at the time of insertion.

 

[goody2shoes]

Some of them have been cleaned, some still capped,

Like Meg's said it looks like a queen at 4 o'clock,

There are new Bee's,

Making honey?

I don't know...

Goody

 

[Lesgold]

Ask yourself this question Goody. What would the bees in that hive do with the eggs if there was a queen present? What would they do with the eggs if there was no queen in the hive? They are the only two possibilities. And the answer is........

 

[goody2shoes]

The eggs all hatched and the young brood is now plump and healthy.

Been thinking about this,

I would think they would be able to fly,

They would be able to collect pollen ,

Help raise a queen,

Support the rest of the hive,

Become workers,

From what you have said, they only have a short life span ,

So they would be put to work quite quickly,

If any dead cells get cleaned out,

Goody

 

[goody2shoes]

The Queen lays eggs to keep the hive going and going,

They need to feed the Queen so she can keep going,

If no queen..would think they would be trying to make them hatch to see if a new queen is among them ,

General rule is one queen to a hive, unless the Queen is about to die or she is sick,

They need a queen,

Goody

 

[Lesgold]

I like your thinking Goody BUT there is only one slight problem with your logic. Where is the egg going to come from to raise the new queen? A normal, garden variety, every day fertile egg can be raised into a worker bee or a queen bee depending on what they are fed. (I think in a moment of weakness, some of the answer has been given to you)

 

[goody2shoes]

A queen would of had to of layed the eggs in the first place?

I am unsure if they would eat some of the eggs,

Like some species eat there own,

I all so through that there would of been a male bee to get the Queen pregnant,

Think I am confusing myself now....and that is a easy thing to do :lol: :lol: :lol:

Goody

Going to sit back and see who can work it out...

 

[goody2shoes]

I am over thinking it...

Goody

 

[MegsyB007]

If the colony is Queen-less, would they terminate the new brood because they don't need more workers to take care of the brood?
Since the brood is still there and healthy, I'd say that means there is a queen in that colony and everything's swimming along nicely.

 

[Lesgold]

If the colony is queenless, wouldnt they want to make a queen? Oh hang on a bit. All of a sudden there is some eggs available. (Given to the hive by the beekeeper) They make a few queen cells from the eggs and in about 14 or 15 days a new virgin queen hatches.

But what if the hive already has a queen? The bees already know the answer. (They are so much smarter than us in their own environment.) They will use the eggs to raise worker bees as they normally would.

When you look at the picture of the frame, worker bees are being raised. We can therefore assume that the colony has a queen. This is not a fool proof method and there are times where this will not work. In this particular case, this is what I saw on the next frame.

And after a bit of searching:

So the colony now has a laying queen. What happens next? Well the hive will now be left alone. The queen will establish a brood nest and continue to lay eggs. Bee numbers will slowly decline over the next three weeks as there wont be any young bees hatching as older bees die. When the first of the newly laid eggs emerge as young bees, hive numbers will begin to rise again. This colony will therefore struggle to produce a surplus of honey this season unless a winter flowering occurs.

Cheers for now

Les