Bee listers,
One of the better bee supply catalogs I have seen is from Bushy Mountain
Bee Farm (800-233-7929). It has some good general information about
beekeeping, so I fired up my scanner and OCR to post this list two articles
that might interest some of the members of this list.
SECRETS OF A MASTER
Many people consider themselves Master Beekeepers and we met someone this
year that epitomizes "Master Beekeeper". George W. Imirie, Jr. started
keeping bees in 1933 under the tutelage of Dr. Jim Hambleton the top USDA
scientist at the time. George has worked with bees for 63 years applying
scientific methods he has learned as an Atomic Physicist and he tells it
like it is! He and his partner Ann Harmon produce a yearly average of 132
pounds per colony in Maryland, a state with an average of 28.5 pounds per
year. George is eager to share his knowledge with those interested in
improving their beekeeping skills. By following his management techniques
you will make much more honey. His methods are really very simple and this
is an abbreviation of what he does.
He requeens every colony each fall. He does not do it in the Spring.
When you requeen in the fall your bees should not swarm the next year given
plenty of room, also they will winter much better. His "Almost Foolproof
Requeening" methods are described below. Practice good fall management,
making sure required disease and mite treatments are applied. Producing
honey requires a large field force to collect it
. To get that field force you must stimulate the queen to lay by feeding:
1:1 sugar syrup (Ipound of sugar with I pint of water). The gestation
period for a worker is 21 days and she spends the first 19 days of her life
doing hive duties. Only after 40 days is a worker ready to collect nectar.
Let's say your honey flow starts May 1..ON THAT DAY YOU WILL NEED A FIELD
FORCE OF AT LEAST 42,000 BEES. A young queen (REQUEEN IN THE EARLY FALL)
can lay 1500 eggs per day, so in one brood cycle (21 days) she can lay
about 31,000 eggs. Understanding that it takes a bee 40 days to be ready
for field work; you know you need to feed for two months (40 days plus 28
days) prior to the honey flow. Fortunately you may need to feed for only 6
weeks because the last two weeks there should be naturally available
nectar. Do not let those feeders run out!
When your honey flow starts you should add your drawn extracting supers
immediately to the colonies. At least 3 per colony. Colonies swarm due to
congestion and George eliminates this by adding an Imirie Shim between each
super. The additional entrance reduces congestion, thwarts swarming, and
allows the bees to reduce the moisture from 50~7c to 80% to the required
16% to 18% much easier. As soon as your crop is capped remove the supers
and shims. Don't worry about burr comb using the Imirie Shim because the
bees will prefer the drawn supers and will store their crop there.
*************
Almost FoolProof Requeening
By George W. Imirie, Jr.
When your new marked queen arrives, water her and store her in a cool
dark place until needed. Gather up a double screen board, an empty hive
body, 10 drawn combs and some 1:1 sugar syrup, and a feeder.
Find the old queen in the colony you want to requeen. Set her aside and
select 3 frames of brood from her hive; I capped and 2 of larvae and eggs,
with the covering nurse bees.
Place these in the center of the empty hive body. Now add 6 more frames, as
follows; 2 err.pty drawn comb, (one on each side of the brood frames), 2
frames of honey and pollen, (one on each side of the drawn comb), then 2
more empty drawn comb, (one on each side of the honey-pollen frames). This
makes 9 frames leaving space for the queen cage.
Now take several frames of brood....remaining in the old colony....and
shake some of the bees into the new 9 frame nuc. Cover the nuc and set
aside for a while. Return the frame with the old queen to her home hive and
fill with drawn comb. This colony will stay where it was originally.
Put the double screen board on top of the old colony opening the back
entrance of the double screen board. Put the 9 frame nuc on top and install
the new queen (make sure you remove cork from end with candy). Start
feeding the split immediately. In 3 days check the queen cage very quickly
with little or no smoke to see if she has been released. If she has not
been, release her from the cage. Do not disturb for another 5 to 7 days
then check again with as little disturbance as you can and look for eggs.
Add the 10th frame and remove the queen cage.
During the next few weeks check the brood pattern of the new queen. If all
is well you can kill the old queen and remove the double screen board. This
method has a couple of advantages:
1) if something is wrong with the new queen, the colony has a backup with
the old queen and
2) for a time 2 queens wil] be laying eggs increasing the number of bees
which will make the hive stronger and help reduce the stress of Winter.
Source: Bushy Mountain Bee Farm Catalog. Standard disclaimer, a happy customer
***********
After reading these articles, I have two questions:
1. When do most beekeepers requeen- Fall or Spring?
2. HOw effective are "Imirie Shims"?
Paul Cronshaw DC
Hobby Beekeeper
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