Beekeeping Lecture delivered by Grant Gillard at Effingham, IL on February 27th, 2016 on how to manage bee hives for maximum potential honey crops.

1. Grant F.C. Gillard Jackson, MO

2. General Info
www . Slideshare . net
Gillard5 @ charter.net
https: // www . Createspace.com / 4111886
www . grantgillard . Weebly . Com
Facebook

3. What’s this talk about?
Potential!
Not just potential honey production, but
potential to change lives.
What are we selling or offering?
Gifts! Honey or fruitcake at Christmas?
Open doors to speaking engagements
Financial opportunities

4. But mostly,
Honey is the confirmation…
“I am a Beekeeper!”

5. Honey production is not hard:
Who really does the work?
Beekeepers…
We set the stage,
We prime the pump,
We unlock the flood gates,
We help the bees to do what they do best.
The Timing of Management
Luck with Weather Conditions
Healthy Colony of Bees

6. What’s at stake?
Why is this important?
Spouse/partner looking for return on the investment
in all that bee equipment
Relatives are looking for some of that free honey
you’ve been promising them
Honey is healthy to eat, makes great gifts
Honey harvest is the ultimate reward for all your hard
work, even if it’s “just a hobby.”
Honey harvested = the yardstick of success
Money and the financial return

7. Major Complaints
“Well, I just don’t have the time.”
“That’s more work than I bargained for.”
“I’m not in it for the money”
(implying, “like you, Grant.”)
“The weather looked a little cloudy. I
thought the bees might be a little aggressive
so I went fishing instead.”

9. Quotes:
C.C. Miller, “Almost every beekeeper dreams
of producing the most honey from their
hives, then dreads how they are going to get
rid of it.”
Roger Morse, “The person who seeks to
maximize their bees’ honey production gets
the most in terms of profit and enjoyment
whatever their reason for keeping bees.”

10. Producing Honey – 6 Elements
Bees (good health)
Colony (highly populated)
Beekeeper (management)
Location (some better than others)
Floral crops in that location (diversity)
Weather (luck)
Wild Card: Two-queen systems

11. What Does It Take?
#1
Overwinter
Strong Colonies

12. What’s at stake?
Strong colonies survive winter better
Strong colonies deal with health issues
better
Strong colonies begin laying eggs earlier in
the spring
Colony growth expands exponentially, start
with more bees, end up with more bees

13. When does the new year start?
August 1st
– Happy New Year!!
My marketable honey is off
Treatments (if any) begin, IPM to determine need
Hives have been requeened and split
Configured for winter
Double brood, maybe brood/medium
Pollen patty thrown in for insurance
Fed through September, maybe until November 1st
Optional candy boards (?)

14. Five cornerstones for winter survival
Young queen, marked
Lots of young bees, strong population
Minimal pest problems, low mites
Abundant stores, preferably honey
Sufficient ventilation (upper entrance)
And all of this has to be
done prior to winter.
Timing is important.

22. Winter Sabbatical –
regain the big picture
Notebooks reviewed – what worked, what didn’t
What I saw and observed
What actions taken that day
What needs to be done next time
What equipment I need to bring along
Any other rambling thoughts (journaling)
Where do I want to go next year?
Hopes and dreams, written goals
Equipment triaged for repair
Supplies ordered (consider picking up at meetings)

23. What Does it Take?
#2
Rapid Spring
Build Up

24. What’s at stake?
Earlier egg laying means a bigger population
for the nectar flow
Productive, young queens lay more eggs
Queens start laying in January, and
everything needs to be in place long before
winter arrives.

25. Right Kind of Bees
We have an early flow in SE Missouri
Begins in mid-April
Comes on strong Mother’s Day to 4th
of July
Italians and Buckfast, and ferals work best
Carniolans and Russians – too slow
Brother Adam: Queens raised in the summer (nectar
and pollen abundant), then overwintered will be the
most productive (annual requeening?)
Mel Disselkoen: Queens mated after June 15th
(summer equinox) lay more eggs into winter

26. Early Spring Inspections
Late January into mid-February
Bring home any dead-outs to clean up
Check candy board and replace
Slide pollen patty under inner cover *
“Mush” ziplock baggy (4# sugar / 1cup water)
“Wet patty” 5# sugar / 1 cup water, on wax paper
March 15 – daffodils bloom
Open hives on 60+ degree days
Pull excessive “honey” frames and freeze
Feed 1:1 to stimulate brood production
Throw in ½ pollen patty*

27. Early Spring Inspections, cont
Mid-April
Remove feeding, depending on weather
Add another brood box (?)
“Checkerboard” frames, or reverse brood boxes
Add a super on top
What do I do with weak colonies that just haven’t got the
memo that we’re going to produce honey?

28. Dealing with weak colonies
Plan A:
Combine weak hives (probably too late to requeen)
3 parts water to 1 part sugar, 1/4 tsp of Honey-B-Healthy or
several drops of lemongrass oil, lightly spritz the frames of
bees. No newspaper necessary.
Kill one of the queens? Let them fight it out?
Plan B:
Leave them alone for now.
Reduce expectations, but make a note of where they are
Add swarm and/or package when available.
Kill existing queen, spritz existing bees, top with newspaper,
add in swarm or package to top brood box.

29. 3:1 Uniting spray
3 cups hot water
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp Honey-B-Healthy
or four drops LMO
$3.87 Wal-Mart
Paint section

30. What Does it Take?
#3
Swarm
Prevention

31. What’s at stake?
When a colony swarms, the productive
“margin” of bees leaves.
These are the bees that make up the
foragers that bring in the surplus nectar.
If the colony swarms…you’ve given away
your honey crop.
Swarming takes time to prepare, but the
“signs” are not necessarily self-evident

35. Swarm Prevention
“Congestion” is the trigger that sets up swarming
Congestion is the competition for open cells between
a) a productive, young queen looking to lay eggs and
b) abundant, incoming nectar needing storage (or
feeding more than necessary).
Simple solution: provide more cells space with drawn
comb
Stay one step ahead of the need

36. Swarm Prevention
Open up and expand brood nest
Walt Wright, checkerboarding*
Lloyd Sechrist, expanding brood nest
“Demaree” method of swarm prevention
Add third brood box, alternate frames*
Young queens retard swarming – queen substance
(consider annual requeening)
Prevention is preferred to swarm control
Prevention is pre-swarming management
Control is post-swarming damage containment

37. Swarm Control
If you see capped swarm cells, chances are good the
swarm has left with the old queen…but not always.
So if you see capped queen cells and a queen walking
around, is she the old queen? Or virgin?
Have you marked your queens?
Plan A: squish all the queen cells, then come back 10
days later to do it again (and don’t miss any)
Plan B: Remove queen to a nuc, squish all but two
queen cells and allow the colony to reset
Plan C: Divide up the colony and allocate frames with
queen cells to nuc boxes. Squish all but two cells

38. Easiest Swarm Prevention
About a week prior to the normal swarming date,
around April 15th
, perform a reverse split
Pull out the existing queen (marked=easier to find)
Place two frames of open brood in a nuc box
Add compliment of drawn comb, feed 1:1 syrup
Move nuc to new bee yard? Maybe
The queenless remnant is fully resourced to raise
queen cells.
Plan A: One week later, perhaps, consider squishing
perfectly good queen cells and leave only two.
Plan B: Or split into nucs (probably three or four)

39. What Does it Take?
#4
Intelligent
Supering

40. What’s at stake?
Incoming nectar might be stored in brood
nest
Congestion – swarming
You have to harvest brood frames

41. Supering
Super before it’s needed, stay ahead of the
game
Start out with one super well before flow,
early April, and drawn comb is preferred
(allows bees to clean it up and make it ready)
– queen may lay eggs here!
Add additional supers below existing supers
(bottom supering)

42. Using Queen Excluders
New foundation: do not use queen excluder until comb
is drawn out nicely, allow queen to lay in comb, then
add excluder.
Super with two frames drawn comb on outsides, six
frames of new foundation in the middle.
Or wait until the end of May or mid-June, add excluder
if you want (need three weeks to clear out larvae)
With excluder: Provide upper entrance!!!!

43. Honey Excluders?
Hive A: Control – no excluder, bottom entrance
Most honey
Most brood
Hive B: Excluder, standard bottom entrance
1/2 brood – “honey bound”
1/3 honey production
Hive C: Excluder, upper entrance
Comparable honey
Comparable brood

44. What Does it Take?
#5
Expedient
Harvesting

45. Harvest
Early and often, begin middle of June
Remove capped frames, not necessarily entire supers
Most capped honey in middle of super
Return freshly harvested frames and supers
“Dry” supers, not “wet” supers – robbed out
Multiple yards – segregate varieties
Market separately, offer taste challenge
Finish about mid-July, get ready to treat, split
Uncapped honey – drying/hot room, test moisture

46. Bee Removal from supers
Pull frames and shake individually, no bee brush
Bee escapes with screen, then return after 24 hours
Fume boards – quick and easy
Pushes bees down, but reluctant to leave brood*
Bee-go – the most effective, the worst smell
Honey Robber – Bee-go with cherry flavoring
Honey Bandit – Really good, nice smell (Mann Lake)
Fischer’s Bee Quick – good
Fume boards on stack of supers in truck - robbing

47. What Does it Take?
#6
Location
Location
Location

48. Location
Is your back yard really the best place to produce
honey? (2 mile radius = 8,000 acres)
Urban/suburban vs. rural countryside
Multiple locations offer diversity of blooms
Creek bottoms, flood plains insure against drought
(watch out for flash floods next to creeks)
Contact farmers for locations (sprays?)
CRP ground, ditches along Interstate Highways
Leased ground through Dept of Natural Resources

49. Consider Moving Your Bees
Inconvenient…must be done at night
Bees crawl, not fly…need their beauty sleep, screen
entrance? Tape all the cracks?
Unless you have forklifts, you need hives secured,
strapped down, hand carts, young fellas with strong
backs….
I move some hives from Cape Girardeau County to
Scott County (different flow, later flow, second harvest).

50. ☻

52. What Does It Take
to Make a Ton of Honey?
Luck = Preparation + Opportunity
Preparation = setting the stage
Opportunity = mostly weather
Passion and desire to work when it’s hot, to
put up with getting stung, and to stay one
step ahead of the bees.

53. Wildcard: Two queen system
Basis: One colony of 60,000 bees will produce more
honey than two colonies of 30,000 each.
Why? A certain number of bees must stay home to
take care of the brood. The rest are free to forage.
That number does not change significantly with
increased colony populations.

54. Why does this work?
Walter Gojmerac

55. Two Queen Management
Not new
U of Wyoming 1940
U of Wisconsin, Dr. Farrar, 1946 into 1950s
Requires extra manipulations, tall hives
Is the additional labor worth the extra honey?
Most advantageous on mid-summer flows
2nd
queen needs 5 to 7 weeks to make an optimal
impact

56. Two Queen Manipulations
In a double brood box situation, remove five frames of
capped brood taken from the brood nest.
Add five empty frames to the brood nest (swarm
prevention)
Top with double screen, add the five removed frames
to a brood box, add five more, set above the double
screen, introduce a mated queen.
After 5 to 7 weeks, combine in three brood boxes
Plan A: Let the queens fight it out
Plan B: Pull out one of the queens to a nuc

57. Question: if six weeks remain in nectar flow, will this make a
difference on early flows?
Where can I get queens? (Remember reverse split?)

58. Red Belly Bee Farm - Facebook

59. Better Bee Tower Colony

60. Every Beekeeper is Different
Every Hive is Different
Every Year is Different
Every Location is Different
“Nothing important merely happens.”
“Ben Hur,” Cecil B. DeMille to Charleston Heston
“Stay in the race.
I’ll see that you win”