Here’s an interesting piece from the 1956 ABJ, which shows how 1) winter losses have always been high and difficult to manage; 2) the annual restocking of colonies has always been an established practice; 3) annual beekeeping can be more profitable than perennial if done correctly.



* * *



Package Beekeeping Versus Overwintering



Henry W. Hanson



Using package bees with me was more or less an accident. In 1936 I lost 90% my bees and by the time I got through cleaning up the mess and extracting the honey that was left I thought I had better do something else so I decided I would try package bees altogether. For me it has worked out fine and I don't have worry about the colonies all winter. I have been free from this worry for some twenty years and I think when you figure it in dollars and cents, you come out ahead.



Let me impress on you that beekeeping with package bees isn't everybody’s game. It is a different way keeping bees and I had to learn it the hard way. The question is, does it pay?



Yes it does provided you are not located so far south that you do not have time to build up the packages to full strength before the honeyflow begins. You should have about eight weeks. The farther north you are, the better it will pay because you have a longer time.



Taking latitude into consideration, let's agree that it takes about 70 lbs. of honey to carry your colonies through the winter. In our location in Iowa we can take a package of bees up to full strength on twenty pounds and have some to spare which leaves us fifty pounds to sell. Let's figure that fifty pounds at 12c; that makes $6.00. Then let's figure a package at $4. It will cost you about that by the time you take in your freight, shrinkage, queen replacement, and so on. So at the very start I have a $2 gain.



We are assuming that a package will produce as much honey as a wintered colony and in my experience it will. Some years on a short flow it won't make it, but the next year on a longer flow it will make more because you have a young queen to back up every one of your colonies.



Now this $2 saved is only the beginning. You can run twice as many bees with the same labor because the packages do not need as much attention. You install your packages, see that they are queen-right, equalize them, and it is pretty much an assembly line operation when you go through your bees. You don't need help with quite as much experience. Swarming trouble is negligible.



Another thing I like about package bees is that there is no trouble in taking honey off of them. Just give them a spoonful of cyanide and there is your honey crop ready to take in. I don't have to make an extra trip to the yard with escapes or stand around with acid boards or take a sting. In fact I can work without a veil because dead bees don't sting.



In my book the labor used in extracting the extra 50 lbs. that would remain on wintered bees is less than the labor used in removing the crop from the wintered bees by escapes or acid.



Another saving is that you get all your equipment inside to paint and repair, sort combs, put on new bottom boards and whatever else is needed. In other words it is easier to keep your equipment in good condition and it will last longer. I have hives that are 20 years old and still good.



Of course when you winter bees you have some loss, but in a favorable year you can make up with divisions. However, I notice a lot of beekeepers who winter bees have to buy packages to make up the loss. In addition they have the expense of buying extra queens and repairing a certain amount of equipment that is damaged during the winter for one reason or another, because of tipping over the hives, someone stealing, someone knocking the colonies over.



It is hard for me to put a value on the savings in a year in wear and tear on my equipment, but I know it is a substantial amount.



In conclusion it is up to the individual beekeeper to decide if his location is suitable for packages and if his outfit is big enough so that labor costs enter the picture. And then I would say, "Go easy!" There are a lot of pitfalls that must be avoided when managing with all package bees.



For a small beekeeper, where labor does not enter the picture, I would say by all means working with wintered bees is more interesting and it is not as much of a cut and dryed operation.



Myron R. Frisque



Because our winters are quite long in Wisconsin (Green Bay) wintering bees is quite costly here. This past winter many producers lost ¼ to ½ of their bees even though they left considerable honey. After all we do not need any bees from the 1st of September until the 10th of April. This is a long time to be rearing brood consuming stores, putting wear and tear on the equipment, and spending money for extra labor with no return. This year for example in spite of the fact that we had a cold and severe spring our packages are building up fine and many queens are laying in two bodies (May 31). They should be ready for the flow about June 20.



For packages to be profitable you should get them from a good reliable dealer. Many packages are not what I would call good ones and this is one reason so many turn up their noses when you mention package bees.



We obtained twenty-five packages from one breeder this season and hived them under the same condition as all the rest but they are quite a bit behind and have to be given considerable help to bring them up with the others. I think it would help the southern package men if they would send out the larger 2 lb. package. There seems to be such a difference in them. Some shippers also get so many old bees in the package that they never build up. If the time ever comes when we can get more dependable packages and if we spend as much time and effort in building them into colonies as we spend with colonies that have wintered I am sure more ·beekeepers would lean towards packages.



G. H. Cale



I think the question is whether package bees will produce as much honey as the over-wintered colony and what the comparative costs are between the two.



A few years ago we had about 1,000 colonies in northern Minnesota along the Canadian line and had at least ten years to find out what the comparison is in that northern location between the two kinds of bees.



To put it briefly the packages cost us less when, as Hanson says the honey left for winter is taken into consideration. The bees consumed enough honey to buy two packages for every colony that was wintered and so the saving was evident in our figures.



In addition although colonies could be wintered, whether packed heavily or lightly, in sheltered spots, in the northern location queens in summer worked long days, laid heavily and were called upon through the season perhaps to do as much work in one year as is ordinarily done by a queen in two years. So in the over-wintered colonies, while they started off well in the spring, the queen would soon fail. This brought on swarming also during supersedure and in the same period package bees would forge ahead of the wintered colonies and be stronger because they all had young queens and they were all even.



The cost of re-queening the wintered colonies, or dividing them with new queens and reuniting, when added to the cost of the winter feed, made the packages a better proposition. Most always the packages made a larger crop than the over-wintered colonies no matter how well they might be managed and certainly when costs were considered the package was much cheaper. Another thing in favor of the package was the fact that the season was short when packages were used in comparison to the much longer season when wintered. This saves all around.



However, as Hanson says, the interval between the receipt of the package and the beginning of the flow should be at least eight weeks and ten is better. There are many  locations where such a build-up possible. It all boils down to a matter of cost and returns, so each one has to try the thing for himself.  



 



             ***********************************************

The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned

LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:

http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html