IT’s a bit of a kick looking back at my 2009 and 20015 posts. Yes, it took over 5 years from wanting bees to actually getting them. But now, after 4 years it’s a good time to rehash a few things I learned.
First lesson: Beekeeping is transformative
I’ve been involved in agriculture on some level almost my entire life, even if it might have been just growing a few plants in a garden. So I naturally look at the land, the plants, the ecology in a different way than most urban non-farming folks. But getting bees has totally altered my view of the environment and the way I am tied to it through these little insects.
I think one of the best illustrations of this comes in the form of next door neighbors and their lawn. when I first moved here and realized that they were only going to mow about 3 times a year, I viewed theirs a perpetual eyesore. While I was trying to get a nice stand of grass they were growing weeds and lots of them!
My neighbors’ field of dandelions
Once I got the bees, my view of this lawn was totally altered. That first year I think I harvested 5 pints of honey. Guess who got one of those pints? That lawn was transformed from an eyesore into free and wonderful pasture! Those neighbors have not changed their lawncare practices once in the last 10 years, but my attitude certainly has! Weeds are no longer weeds, and a lush green lawn is no longer lush. A lawn of just grass might as well be concrete for all the good it does ecologically. I’m currently planning to overseed more clover on my own lawn and I don’t try to get rid of dandelions other than mowing which my oldest son and his mother are a bit zealous about.
I’ve also learned that I do need to manage my hives when it comes to the mites. While I have never treated, I’m not going to say I never will. But that first year of doing a walk-away split taught me that mites CAN be managed by doing a split around the first of July. I had inadvertently stumbled into a practice sometimes called “OTS Queen Rearing” promoted by Mel Disselkoen and it would be at least another year before I stumbled into a talk given by him on the subject and why this works. And I have managed my bees and splits in such a way that I split about that same time every year.
I also learned that I need to manage space. Two years ago, I did my splits late as usual, but also extracted a big bunch of honey. I figured I’d put those wet boxes back on 2 of the stronger of the hives and they might fill it back out. Within 2 months both those hives were dead, taken over by hive beetles and wax moths. Bees do better if they are crowded a bit.
By the end of that winter, I was down to one single hive. So I ordered a couple of packages and caught my first ever swarm! I was back in business. This past winter I lost a couple of hives but kept working my splits and this is what the bee-yard looks like today.
This is row A and there is also a row B.
So let’s talk about each of these hives starting with row A. Moving from the left, Hive #1 was a bit of a botched split from the large hive in row B. When I went in a week later there were few bees and no sign of a queen that should have been brought over from the parent hive. Fortunately I had made a similar split from super hive #4A at the same time that worked, so I had an abundance of queen cells that I was able to place in that #1A. So we’ll see how that turns out in a few weeks.
Hive #2A is one that has been struggling all year since trying to do a split back in March. I finally had a queen take hold and start laying in May and was finally able to add a second box. I may end up having to treat that one in the fall as that is a pre-solstice queen but we’ll see how she does.
Hive 3A is a little nuc that has also struggled all year. While they have a queen she is struggling so that also got a new queen cell with some capped brood, basically superceding what looks like a lame queen.
Hive 4A is a superhive from an overwintered nuc that just took off. I split that one and that queen now occupies Hive 2B and they are now 4A is making a new queen. That hive also has a number of uncapped honey frames that I’m hoping they can finish off.
Hive 5A was another strong colony that is the latest split. That queen occupies Hive 3B.
This is how I do most of my splits. It’s called a Taranov split, sometimes also called a shake split or an artificial swarm. I like it because the resulting split is almost even, resulting in two strong colonies and you don’t have to catch or even look for the queen. Young bees go with the old queen into the new hives while the older bees fly back to the original resulting in the closest thing to a controlled swarm one can do. As a result, swarms are VERY rare in my bee yard. So now this new hive is 3B and I’ll leave them be for a couple of weeks.
Hive 6A is the last hive and the queen seems to just be taking off now. Haven’t decided if I want to split this one or not so waiting a bit to see how they do.
Hive 1B was supposed to be split but that queen somehow persists with most of her bees so I have to think about either making another split attempt or just letting them go and treating in the fall. That hive is full of uncapped honey so am waiting for them to finish those up before acting.
So for those keeping score the present hive count is at 9 which is about as high as I’ve ever gotten. My goal is a steady 10 so we’re just about there, though it might be another year before I can count it as sustainable and seeing what winter brings.
My Backyard 