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It has been almost two years since my last blog entry on these pages. Been busy! The good thing is I’m back with two more years of beekeeping experience. Today, I would like to share something that I’m really passionate about here at Beau’s Bee Yards. That is the process we go through to select which of our queens to graft from. In essence, which hives show the desired characteristics we are looking for .

There is a long list of traits in honeybees one could select for, at least 12 -15 common ones. Everything from honey production to bee color(darker of lighter colored bees). Although it would be fantastic to produce a queen with all the traits on this long list, it would not be realistic in practice with limited labor and time. Instead, we decided to focus on a short list of four traits and once we master producing queens consistently with these four traits, we can select for additional traits later.

HONEY. Although our main income from beekeeping is NUC sales, honey sales still pays a good chunk of the bills. We record the amount of honey taken from each hive in the fall. Top 20% of the hives are recorded as possible candidates to graft from.

GENTLENESS OR CALMNESS. Beekeepers get asked a lot – do you get stung – do you get stung everyday- etc. A quote from a famous beekeeper, Mike Palmer, “Do you like bees that staple your socks to your ankles? I don’t like bees that staple my socks to my ankles.” Every time we are in a hive, we are looking for a hive of calm bees. Bees that are not aggressive. Bees boiling out at you when all you do is remove the cover are not pleasant. Not being able to see through your veil because angry bees clung to your veil trying to sting your face is bad. We mark aggressive hives as “DO NOT GRAFT” and are re-queened.

There are two types of calmness a hive must display before getting the OK mark. One is lack of aggressiveness mentioned above. They must sting very little or not at all. The other is how the bees move about on the frame. Some bees have a tendency to run around on the frame at high speeds in all different directions. We call these runners. We look for bees that are calm on the comb. Just walking around doing the work of house bees. One of the joys of beekeeping is to pause and enjoy some time with these bees. Much easier to find the queen among these walking bees. They get the OK mark.

OVER WINTERED BEES. This one is easy. Any live queen in the spring is a candidate to graft from.

HYGIENIC BEES. From Bee Informed Partnership: Hygienic behavior is a trait that correlates with resistance to chalkbrood, American Foulbrood, and Varroa mites. Bees with this trait are able to detect, uncap, and remove infected pupae before they become infectious, slowing the spread of disease and the population growth of the mite.

Testing shows this trait is present in only about 10% of hives. The trait is natural but not a common trait. By selecting for hygienic behavior, it has been shown that one can greatly increase this almost to 100% of your hives. That is our goal and we are very anxious and hopeful to see results. This will be the second year we will be testing for this trait.

Testing is basically killing some capped brood and waiting 24 hours to see if the bees uncap and remove the dead. The test consists of laying a frame of brood flat. Place a piece of 3″ PCV pipe on some capped brood and fill with liquid nitrogen which freeze-kills about 100 cells. Replace the frame in the hive and wait 24 hours. A hive is considered 100% hygienic if all cells within the circle are uncapped and cleaned out.

This last image is of a hive that did not make the grade. We decided to be very picky with this trait and only hives that test 100% hygienic make the grade for grafting.

This leaves a final number of hives that meet all four traits. Honey production, calmness, over-wintered, and hygienic behavior. From these, we pick breeder queens from which we graft new queens. These new queens are placed in NUCs for sale, used for increasing number of hives or replacing older queens. Thanks for reading! Bee Happy!

It’s been a long cold snowy spell here in central Minnesota.  Beekeepers have not had a chance to crack open their hives and check on their bees because of record cold temperatures.  Temps should be at least in the high 30’s or in the 40’s, and little or no wind, before attempting to check on the your bees.  Hopefully by mid-March, we will see those temps.  And even at those temps, make inspection times as short as possible.  You don’t want to expose the bees too long and chill them. 

Before you open a hive on the next warmer day, have a plan and know why you are checking (disturbing) the bees.  There are two main reasons for checking your hives this time of year.  1) Checking for dead-outs or weak hives.  2) Checking if bees have enough stored honey to make it to spring.  It’s not a time to spend finding the queen, or even pulling frames.  Bees are in a clustering mode, like a ball shape of bees, this time of year and the cluster should not be disturbed.

Dead-outs are basically a hive of dead bees. This is sad and disappointing to see if you are new to beekeeping or a long time keeper.  There are many reasons bees don’t make it through our cold winters – starvation,  they lost the queen going into winter, mite loads, viruses, bees got wet from condensation inside the hive, etc.   Most of these reasons are preventable as we gain more knowledge, but some are by no fault of our own.  You may also find weak hives – very small cluster of bees the size of baseball or fewer.  This small number of bees most likely will not make it to spring.  Beekeepers count their dead-outs and weak hives so they know how many replacement bees to order this time of year.

Hopefully, most of your hives will be alive with a good size cluster of bees inside.  One thing to check without disturbing the cluster is how much honey is still available for the bees.  Late March is when most hives run out of food.  The queens starts laying eggs as the days become longer.  Great amounts of stored honey and pollen are used to raise the new brood.  The only food they have is stored inside the hive.  There are no flowers in bloom yet, so no nectar or pollen is being collected.  Beekeepers must decide if there is enough stored honey or they must feed the bees.

Sometimes bees will starve even though they have frames of honey in the hive.  When bees are clustered in the colder part of winter, they eat honey to stay warm.  They generate heat by flexing their wing muscles.  As honey cells around the cluster become empty, individual bees are unable to travel far and retrieve honey because they will freeze and die before making it back to the cluster.  Therefore, the whole cluster must pick up and move to the stored honey.  The bad thing is the temperature needs to be warm enough inside the hive for the cluster to move.  When there are long periods of very cold weather, the cluster of bees do not have an opportunity to move.  In a matter of days, they starve and die.  Bees share to the last drop and then die all within a short time, a day or two.

So, if weather permits, check your hives and feed if necessary in March.

New beekeepers have many questions and often wonder what to do with the bees once getting them home.  The box the bees come in is not meant for long time use. Its purpose and design is for transporting bees only.  You will need to have a permanent hive all set up and ready to go before the bees arrive.

I was all geared up to write this long informative post on how to transfer bees from a 5 frame NUC to a 10 frame hive body.  Then I remembered seeing a YouTube video on this.  After some research I believe there is plenty of  good YouTube videos out there on this subject. So, I decided to just post some here and maybe add my two cents and comments.

NUC is short for “nucleus colony of bees.” It has everything  a large full spring-time colony has, only less of everything.  Larger established colonies have 20-30 or more frames which are in multiple boxes stacked on top of each other to make up one hive containing 40,000 or more bees.  In contrast, NUCs are generally sold as 4 or 5 frame NUCs and come in a single small box containing about 10,000 bees.

A good NUC should have a young (a few months old) local queen, which has been laying in the frame cells for several weeks.  You should see at least two or three frames of eggs, larvae, and capped brood.  There should be some pollen and honey stored on the frames. It is better if all frames have drawn comb, but some producers sell 5 frame NUCs with 4 drawn frames and 1 new frame, which should really be considered a 4 frame NUC.  The NUC should be full of bees crawling on all frames.  Think of crowded, as you’ll need to transfer to a large hive box ASAP, when you get them home.   NUCs are a great easy way to get started.  All you need to do is transfer frames to a larger box and you are done setting up.

There are things to watch for when buying NUCs.  Things even new beekeepers can watch for.  When picking up your NUCs, ask to look inside.  The first thing you should check is the amount of bees.  You should see lots of bees all over the frames and filling the space between frames.  That’s about 10,000 bees.  Second, ask to see a frame with eggs and brood so you know the queen is laying.  This is a good time to also look at the drawn wax the eggs are in.  Fresh wax is whitish-yellow but don’t expect that. More likely the wax will be light yellow to darker brown which is fine.  Very old wax is dark, almost black in color.  If you find this, think about asking for a refund and go somewhere else.  

An added touch for new beekeepers is if the queen is marked.  It’s always exciting to find the queen.  She will be easier to spot if marked.  Also, a good supplier should guarantee that your queen continues to lay eggs for 30 days.

Ask about the genetics of the queen.  From what stock was she reared from?  Was the stock wintered in northern states?  Where was she mated?  Ask your supplier if there is a chance of genetics from Africanized Bees.  Ask how they treat for Varroa mites.

With a young laying queen NUCs will expand into a full size hive in a few short weeks ready for the summer honey flow.

There are many very interesting parts to beekeeping. You may have googled things like comb honey, rearing and selling queens, making wax candles, making colony splits, how much honey per hive to expect, etc. Oh and all the ads from equipment dealers for extractors, wax melters, and honey bottling tanks.

Of course, don’t ever stop learning about all aspects of these fascinating creatures, but if you are new to beekeeping and starting with your first hive(s), I strongly recommend you focus on one goal your first season. Goal: keep your bees healthy and you’ll especially want healthy bees going into winter in northern states such as Minnesota.

Learn all you can about honey bee diseases and pests. Become knowledgeable, learn how to prevent diseases, and know how and when control is needed. American Foulbrood, European Foulbrood, Chalkbrood, and Nosema are some of the diseases. Deformed Wing, Black Queen Cell, Acute Bee Paralysis, and Sacbrood are some viruses. Pests include Tracheal mites, Varroa mites, Small Hive Beetles, Wax Moths, Mice, Skunks, Wild Turkeys, and of course, Bears.

Ok, don’t let me scare you off by the long list. All animals get diseases – cats, dogs, birds, deer, cattle, butterflies, etc. To be a sussessful beekeeper you will need to learn how to recognize when your bees need your help. You can’t take your bees to the vet. You’ll have to treat them yourself.

In the last five years, I have seen Chalkbrood, Nosema, Deformed Wing Virus, Black Queen Cell, Varroa Mites, Small Hive Beetles, and Wax Moths in our hives. Every hive will have trouble with varroa mites sooner or later. You will need to check/test for varroa and treat if mite counts reach the threshold or else you will loose your bees. Therefore, if you focus on one bee issue your first season, it should be the varroa mite. I will address how to check and treat for varroa mites in future posts.

You will learn as you go. Try not to feel overwhelmed with keeping your bees healthy. Beekeeping has a high learning curve for everyone.

If you have the budget for it, we recommend you start with two hives.  If not, then one is just fine.  But with two hives, you will be able to compare the two.  Is one doing better than the other?   Maybe one hive has sick bees and your bees are telling you something?  Or one hive has calmer bees than the other?  One hive produced more honey than the other.?  Those are good questions and observations to share with your mentor or fellow beekeepers.

With more than one hive, you will have more management options than you would if you just had one hive.  If a hive becomes weak, you can transfer a frame of brood, honey or pollen from the stronger hive to the weaker one.  Or if you happen to smash the queen by accident, you can take a frame of brood from the other hive and the bees will rear their own new queen.  Yes, even highly experienced beekeepers occasionally smash queens when removing a frame and we all feel terrible about it.

Many things can go wrong through no fault of our own.  It’s just the nature of beekeeping.  The learning curve is steep for beginners.  So starting with two hives,  you will have a better chance of your bees surviving and you will be able to keep them healthier..

As we are taking orders for spring NUCs we are getting many questions from first time beekeepers – “Newbees”.  We too were newbees once, full of questions, so we fully understand.  I’m going to try to answer some of the most common questions in the following posts.

Before getting into questions, I want to highlight a couple of things.  First is finding a mentor.  Someone in your area that has kept bees for a while and is willing to work with you or at least answer some basic questions for you about beekeeping.  The best way to find a mentor is to join a bee club in your area.

We belong to Tri-County Beekeepers Association which meets in St Cloud once a month where meetings include presentations/demonstrations on topics related to beekeeping and pollinators.  The club meets at 7 p.m. the first Tuesday of every month at Holy Cross Lutheran Church located at 2555 Clearwater Road, St Cloud, MN.  The club draws members from Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties, as well as from Buffalo, Delano, Glenwood, Little Falls, Long Prairie, Mora, St. Michael, Spicer and other places in central Minnesota.  If you are from around the area, you are welcome to join us, even if you don’t have bees but are interested in beekeeping.

Keep those question coming, and watch this blog as I attempt to answer a few common questions.  Later . . .

Beekeeping – Working your hives. Watching the worker bees bring in nectar and pollen on a warm sunny day.  Extracting honey in the fall.  The excitement of finding the queen.  The buzzing of bees in a flower patch.  All of these and more may come to mind when you think about beekeeping.

As our business grows we are realizing the not-so-glamorous part of beekeeping is taking more and more time to address–the part that we never had to do or worry about when we only had a few hives.  For example, early on we had enough friends and neighbors to sell or give away our honey to. Now we must give needed attention to marketing to expand our customer base.

Please don’t get me wrong.  It’s a blessing and a top-of-the-world feeling to see our bee business reach this point in just five short years.  I’m just saying there is more to beekeeping than spending time with bees – the nuts and bolts of a successful bee business. 

There are off-season things like building pallets, building more bee equipment, and maintenance on the bee truck and trailer used to haul bees to Texas (tires, lights, change oil, etc).  The decision to overwinter our bees in Texas this year added a whole new chapter to the nuts and bolts part. The logistics of transporting bees legally and safely in large scale takes much planning.

 We are looking forward to getting all the necessary work done so we can get back to spending time with bees again.