Hive Management

Background Information

During mid-summer you may often find different kinds of cells in the brood chamber. There is capped worker brood, bumpy drone brood, and you may occasionally come across swarm or supersedure cell. Both swarm and supercedure cells are a natural part of the way things work in a hive. However, the beekeeper needs to understand the difference and how to deal with each type of cell.

Queen cells are oversized structures that are built on the comb. When bees make their own queens via swarm or supercedure, the process is similar but there are a few differences you need to be aware of.

Queen cells differ from other cells in the hive in that they are rough,  peanut shaped and hang vertically off the face of the comb. They vary in size and can be anywhere from 1 cm to 2.5 cm in length. They can be found anywhere on the frame and even in hard to see places so it’s easy to miss them especially if they are placed in a corner and are a smaller size.

Queen cells are made when a the bees make a ‘queen cup’ for the queen to lay into. Queen cups look like teacups on the cell. Once the egg is laid, the bees continue to work on the cell like they do when grafting queens. We even use the same terminology ‘queen cups’. or ‘cell cups’ and the intent is the same, its a place to hold the egg.

Swarm or Supercedure

The primary difference used to determine if you have a swarm or supercedure cell is the location. Cells hanging in the middle of the frame are usually supercedure cells while cells hanging on the bottom of the frame are usually swarm cells.

Supercedure Cells

Supercedure cells are meant to naturally replace a failing queen. When bees detect weaker pheromones in an aging queen, or her egg laying rate is reduced, they will replace her via supercedure. The supercedure process begins after the queen lays an egg in a cell and the bees work on developing the new queen cell by feeding royal jelly to the larvae.

Emergency Cells

It’s worth mentioning emergency cells are similar in nature to supercedure. Emergency cells are the same as supercedure but is the term beekeepers use when the queen is accidently killed or gone missing. The bees go into emergency mode and raise their own queen. Since the intent is similar to supercedure (except for killing the queen), emergency cells look similar to supercedure cells.

Swarm Cells

A swarm cell is created with one purpose; to create a second queen. The old queen will leave with half the hive and find a new location. We discuss swarming in greater details here on our swarming page. Swarm cells are found on the bottoms of frames. Most beekeepers will simply prop up the brood chamber and look for swarm cells hanging on the bottom of the frames. Once bees go into swarming mode, it may be difficult to stop them. If you prevent a swarm from happening, recheck in a few days to make sure they aren’t starting new cells again.

Note: The location of the cells is a great for determining the type of cell you have. However, this the location alone will not guarantee type of cell you have. Examine the dynamics/population of the hive to determine what type of cell you have.

Queen Cells: What to do?

When you find queen cells, you need to figure out which type of cell it is. If it’s a supercedure cell, you might want to leave the bees supersede naturally. Bees usually know what they are doing. If you can still find a queen and want to save her, I’d remove her ASAP because there’s a good chance she won’t be around much longer. Marking your queens help detect of you have a new queen present.

If you find swarm cells in development, you probably want to destroy them. Make sure to check every frame thoroughly and get every one. If you miss even one, your hive will swarm. This of course, assumes they haven’t swarmed already. If you find a hatched swarm cell, you are probably too late already.

Save the Queen

When bees make either swarm or supercedure cells, they make more queen cells than they require and they make them on multiple frames. I’ve seen more than 10 swarm cells in strong hives scattered on 4-6 frames. You have plenty of cells and if you leave them intact, the first queen that hatches will kill off all the sister queens. So if you need an extra queen, why not save some of them?

Swarm cells are usually good quality because the hive is strong and has plenty of resources to make well fed queens. That is not the case with supercedure or emergency cells. Those cells are often underfed and will generate subpar queens. If you find ripe swarm cells and need a couple extra queens, you can save them by removing the frames with the best looking cells and place them in a queen mating box or nuc. You can also cut out the cell from the frame but be careful not to damage the cell. I have saved excellent queens this way and an queens on hand is always handy. Remember to destroy all other cells in the hive to prevent swarming.

I never take supercedure or emergency cells. I leave them in the hive and let nature sort it out itself. If two queens hatch at the same time, an epic battle will follow when they meet and the strongest will survive. Sometimes I’ll even destroy all supersedure or emergency cells and add in a mated queen of better quality.

There are different methods of how the queen is used in the hive but three of the most common are:

1. Single Brood Chamber
2. Double Brood Chamber
3. No Queen Excluder

Each method has advantages and disadvantages. You have to evaluate your equipment and how you manage your bees throughout the entire year. Part of the criteria to evaluate what works best, is the examine the following:

• Ease of overall management (spring, winter prep, swarming)
• Taking off honey
• Queen Management

Given these 3 factors, we have decided to keep using single brood chambers. Many who use double broods, complain that the queen doesn’t have enough laying space. Let us examine how a single brood chamber is almost like a double brood.

The secret to single brood chamber beekeeping is to allow the queen to lay into the second box in spring until a month prior to extracting. This is essentially giving you the double brood advantage for 6 weeks in spring for quick buildup. It also encourages bees to move up through the excluder once it’s put in place because of the brood frames in the second box. Bees are usually reluctant to go through the excluder, but if brood is present, they will always go up.

Two points to remember if you are using this method. You have to allow an opening on top for drones to leave because they cannot fit through the excluder if they hatch above it. They will try to squeeze through the excluder and die when they get stuck. This creates a messy hive for bees to clean.

Many beekeepers put 2-3 new frames into the brood chamber every year. This is a great management strategy and can still be done. When you add a second box (step 2), you can exchange 3 frames from the brood box and the first honey super. Put 3 drawn out frames into the brood chamber and move the 3 brood frames into the center of second box (what will become honey box 1). If we do a frame exchange and manage to spot the queen, we’ll move her to the bottom box and add an excluder.  That hive is done and the queen is in the bottom with 3 new frames. You simply check the hives that already have an excluder and skip the fume board step later on. You will find that half your hives are done manually simply from spotting the queen when working the hives in spring.

We mentioned the fume board method. A simple way to get bees out of the second box into the bottom one is to use a fume board and Bee Go or Bee Repel. Bees hate that smell and will vacate the box in a minute. After they are gone, simply lift up the second box, add an excluder and put it back on. Done.

Using this method, you can have brood on 12 – 15 frames. Your hive population will be huge when it comes time for honey flow.

Remote hive management is a fairly new concept in beekeeping. Some beekeepers want to know what’s going on in their out yards. This is where nature and technology meet.

Having a developer who lives next door, I rolled the concept of a SMS beehive scale past him one day. He seemed keen to take on the challenge and asked me what I wanted to see besides the weight of the hive. After thinking about it for a while, I decided on the following:

1. Hive weight of one hive
2. Outside temperature
3. Inside Temperature

We already had some of the parts available and we ordered whatever else that was required. A few months later, we have a one built and I was eager to test it. He had already tested it for fluctuation in weight by applying a 50 pound weight over a period of time. The weight held steady. The scale uses a solar panel to charge a small 12 volt battery and it shuts off during the night to conserve energy.

I installed it in spring and needless to say, my outyard monitoring days have never been the same. It’s so easy to use, I’m considering one for my home yard too.

The idea behind the scale is that you text ‘hello’ to the scale using your phone. Within 10 seconds, you will get a reply from the scale via SMS showing the above mentioned points. It’s been working well for several years now and we are considering adding things like humidity and sound sensors.

We also developed an iphone app where the same info can be read via Bluetooth connection when in close proximity to the hive.

This technology sells for around $1200, but we have been considering developing it further and offering it to local beekeepers. There have been no shortage of beekeepers offering to test it. The only cost besides the initial costs are the Pay as You Go phone plan it’s on. Which is $10/month. While the price is probably too high for most backyard beekeepers, the price may come down with time and as technology in this field improves.

Why Split a Hive

When you have a strong hive coming out of winter, with at least 8 plus frames of bees, it can be split. This is a swarming prevention technique and works great for winter loss recovery.

How to Split a Hive

To split a hive, you will require the following:

• Another complete hive with brood chamber, lid, bottom board etc.
• 10 drawn out frames (5 for each hive)
• A new mated queen

When you split a hive, you should divide the assets evenly so both hives are not at a disadvantage. Since we run singles this article pertains to splitting singles.  First, we inspect all frames to get a good idea of the quality of the frames and the amount of brood we have. In early spring, I would like to see 6 frames of brood in a single in order to split the hive. A typical hive that we split will have 2-3 frames honey, several frames pollen and brood. We locate the queen and set the frame aside. That frame will stay with the original hive. All other frames get divided evenly and the frames are centered in the brood chambers with the new drawn out frames on the outside. Since we are taking out 5 frames from the donor, 5 new frames must be added along with 5 frames to the new hive.

We move the new split hive to a new location so that the forager bees don’t fly back to the old hive creating a weak split hive. Leave the new split hive queenless for 24 hours and then add in a caged queen. In three days, you should be able to release the new queen and the new split should be on its way.

You now have an additional hive!

About Swarms

‘A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly.’ Proverbial bee-keepers’ saying, mid 17th century. This saying makes reference to the worth of a swarm with its potential to collect honey that calendar year.

Swarming is a natural part of beekeeping that often creates a buzz. Many curious onlookers are filled with wonder at this natural phenomena. We want to share how we prevent, capture and care for swarms each year.

Why Bees Swarm

If you consider the entire hive acting like a single organism, then swarming is a natural way of organism reproduction. Swarming occurs when a hive becomes overpopulated with bees, or has simply run out of room for nectar storage. Some genetics tend to swarm more than others and aren’t preferred. Bees love work, and if they can’t due to limited hive space, they will swarm.

When swarming instinct kicks in, swarm cells are created. They are easily identified on the bottom of frames. However, the beekeeper must use judgenemnt as not all queen cells on the bottom of frames are swarm cells. The condition of the hive must be examined before that judgement call. Just before the new queen hatches, the old queen will leave the hive and approximately half the hive will go along with her.

The new queen exits the hive and finds a temporary landing spot where bees cluster around her. This can be a tree branch, pole, bike, or any other surface they can cluster. While the swarm clusters there, scout bees will fly away to look for a more permanent lodging. So when you spot a swarm, it’s best to call a local beekeeper as soon as possible because they might move on. Swarms that cluster in the open are usually not dangerous because they have little to protect. No larvae and no honey has been gathered. Sometimes people even stick their hands into the cluster with little effect from the bees.

If the swarm isn’t captured in the temporary location, they will fly to a more secure location. When they are more established, they can be a lot more difficult to rescue. At that point they may need to be cut out of the wall or floor.

I often get asked, ‘Do you know where they come from?’ Many times I can look at a bee yard and look at the amount of bees coming and going from a hive. Sometimes, you will notice that a productive hive simply doesn’t have the population anymore. That is usually a good indicator that it may be your original swarm hive. I never merge aswarms back to the hive.

Swarm traps

I set up swarm traps at the Apiaries. A swarm trap is simply a nuc or an old box with frames inside. They are elevated 6 -10 feet in the air. This makes it a perfect place for new swarms. A swarm lure can be placed inside the hive to attract scout bees.

A simple method for luring the swarm is to take a kleenex and put 4 drops of lemongrass essential oil on it. Put it inside a zip lock bag. Seal the zip lock bag but leave a small crack unsealed so the smell can waft out of the bag. This will lure potential swarms inside your trap and requires less work ‘catching’ a swarm.

Be sure to place the trap at an easily accessible location.

Swarm Prevention

Every beekeeper is responsible to mitigate and prevent swarms to happen. Despite your best efforts, they will still occur.

Even though a swarm helps with increased hive numbers, it’s best to prevent swarms and potential PR issues they can create. The original hive can be severely downgraded to the point where it may take the rest of the year to recover. Swarmed hives will not produce an abundance of honey and the swarm will likely take time to get established. The time of year the swarm occurs is the critical factor in determining how much they can produce.

The best prevention is to control your hive size. If a hive gets too large, take 2-3 frames of brood and make up a new nuc with the frames or give them to another weaker hive. This is a great idea for spring bee management. If this is done, you can prevent most of the swarming in your bee yards.

Another method is to stay ahead of supering. When a box is half full of bees, you should add another one. Just prior to honey flow, we add two deep supers to all hives in anticipation of the heavy flow.

Inspections are another key part of swarm prevention. During swarm season (June – August) in my location, hives should be checked for swarm cells. We rarely take down an entire hive filled with honey to check for cells, but you can do it easily just after you take off honey supers. You might be surprised how many hives are in the process of swarming or superceding.

Catching a Swarm

When we find a swarm, and we usually have several each year, we take a nuc or a regular hive box (pending on size of the swarm) and remove some frames in the middle. We place it under the swarm on a ladder (if you can reach it) and then give the branch or object a quick shake. Most of the cluster should fall into the box and we close the lid immediately. If the swarm is one a surface that cannot be shaken, you can use a bee brush to gently brush them into the box.

The only bee you technically need inside the box is the queen. If the queen falls into the box, the other bees will follow shortly after. Sometimes 2 or more shakes will be required because the queen doesn’t land in the hive box and she flies back on the cluster surface.

When we’ve been lucky, we’ve found the queen crawling around outside the hive box. We simply take her and put her in the hive. A swarm queen is usually a good quality queen because she lay enough eggs to outgrow her hive. Unless they are swarmy, I usually keep swarm queens.

When you notice the bees start entering the box, you know you’ve captured the queen. You can then place the hive on the ground or near the swarm location so the other bees will find the new entrance. We wait until sunset and then move the hive to a new location. The bees’ GPS is reset when in swarm mode so you can place the hive back in the original apiary and the bees will reorient to the new location.

After Catching a Swarm

A captured swarm is like a new hive with no resources. When you’ve moved the swarm to the new location, always add a frame of brood to the hive as soon as you can. I also add a pollen patty and sugar water. If you don’t add brood, the swarm might abandon the hive again. Brood is like a ‘welcome home’ present and gets them going in the right direction very quickly.

After you have given them brood, patty and feed, leave them alone for at least a week because the queen should be allowed to establish her brood pattern.

It is also possible to catch a swarm with a virgin queen. These are usually ‘afterswarm’ bees and they can be put into a nuc or queen castle pending on the size of the swarm. I usually give good looking virgin queens an opportunity to become mated because an extra queen on hand is always nice. Sometimes these ‘afterswarm’ clusters are very small.

Conclusion

Even though I do my best to prevent swarms, they are a reality in the beekeeping world. If you see one, get it as soon as possible and you’ll have another hive free of charge! Continue to monitor the new swarm and the original hive if you can find it. The original hive has a new queen and she needs to mate before she can be productive. If you have an opportunity to educate others around you about swarms, take the time to do so, it may pay off in the longterm.

A Manitoba winter is unlike others in Canada. Our bees are confined to a wintering room for 5-6 months where they just sit and wait for spring. The only bee work required is sweeping dead bees every 10 days or so. Once the weather warms up, they need be be moved outside because the wintering room tends to get too warm.

We usually move bees out in March or April with the weather stays above -5 Celsius at nights.

As soon as the bees are moved outside, they get a mite treatment and 2 quarts of 1:1 sugar water. We also feed 2-3 pollen patties per hive depending on the strength of the hive. We also use a dry pollen feeder to supplement when there is no natural pollen around. As soon as the real thing is available, they abandon the substitute.

There are typically between 5 -10 percent deadouts (dead hives) coming out of winter. However, even hives that survive are in their most vulnerable state and are ‘not out of the woods’ yet. Mid-April night temperatures can easily plummet to -10 and that can be hard on small struggling hives. Many beekeepers place spring wraps on their hives, but we have never bothered.

The photo on top right shows a nice cluster on a cooler spring day when we first inspect them. This hive has the potential to make a nuc and generate 200 pounds of honey.

During the first warmer days, the bees take their first cleansing flights and the season is underway.

When the weather is warmer, usually in later April, we equalize hives. That means taking brood frames from strong hives and moving them to weaker ones. A typical response from an untrained eye would be to replace the queen, but that may not always be the case. We’ve had excellent results from boosting a hive with a frame or two of brood. These ‘brood bombs’ can make a huge difference and will get the queen laying again once her population is boosted.

Winter preparation is all about preparing your bees for next spring and it begins as soon as honey flow is over. To increase your potential for next year, you can’t skip or cheap out.

Here is a quick rundown of how we prep hives for winter. The first thing to note is that if you have a failing queen or hive at this point of the season, it’s usually too late to do much about it. You can requeen into late august, but a hive without brood at this point will likely not make it through the winter. You can add brood frames to the hive from other more productive hives but I don’t take more than a frame per hive to boost another hive. Replacing queens during honey flow works best and younger queens are better and more vigorous than older queens. Some beekeepers replace up to 40% each year.

If you have mite issues, they have to be dealt with as soon as possible. Most beekeepers use oxalic acide with broodless hives. We have had good success with MAQS pads from NOD Apiary Products. We use a half dose (one pad) per hive. We also used it on our 6 frame nucs and it seems to work well.

After all the honey is taken off the hives and our hives are down to single brood chamber, it’s feeding time. I usually feed within a week or two of taking off honey. Productive queens could have filled frames with brood and they could be starving if left without food for too long. Every hive gets about 25 liters of sucrose syrup. I have also used fructose for feed and have not seen any difference when using it.

Here are the two methods of feeding we use.

1. Inverted pail method: This is probably the most used method by many beekeepers because you know exactly how much feed is going into the hive. It also works well in all-weather types and bees don’t need to leave the hive to get feed. It does however require a lot of manual labour to carry pails, invert them and refill as necessary. We use 2.5 gallon pails to feed with a 2 inch mesh. In spring, we use 1 gallon pails and feed about 2 quarts per hive using this method. One risk associated with this method is leaky pails that can flood a hive and kill most of the bees inside.
2. Rob feeding: This is a method used by many commercial beekeepers because it’s less labor intensive and you can feed many hives at once. It involves filling barrels with feed, adding a floating device and have bees rob them out. The advantages are less labor and it’s a quick feeding method. For this reason, this has become our main feeding method for fall feeding. The disadvantages are that it’s weather depending and bees can transmit mites by the communal nature of feeding. If you’re planning on using this method, you also cannot be within 3 miles of another beekeeper.

We may also feed pollen patties in the fall just to give bees an extra bit of pollen coming into winter. We have had success without feeding pollen but a little extra can’t hurt right?