Manage Your Hives Well To Keep Your Bees Happy & Productive
The main thing to understand and master in keeping bees productive is the proper management of hives and colonies. There are general rules and regulations in beekeeping just like any other industry (These will differ from state to state, please check with your local beekeeper’s association).
It’s important that you locate a good spot for your honey bee hives so that they don’t become a nuisance to your neighbours. It’s highly advisable that you place your hive in a way that the entrance faces the sun while facing away from strong winds, it must have easy access to water source and it mustn’t be exposed to too much heat more especially in the summer seasons.
Should your location be without a natural water source, alternatively an artificial one can be made with a bowl or something that can hold water. The tub must be placed in the apiary with wood floats in it; this will allow your bees to drink without the danger of drowning. Make sure you change the water regularly at least once every week to prevent stagnation and mosquito breeding.
Honey bees forage on many types of plants for pollen and nectar to provide food for the colony. Clovers can be used as the number one source from crimsom, white sweet and yellow sweet can provide more nectar for the bees. However most plants are limited in acreage and the majority that produce honey crop are few in number, here’s a list of some plant that make a good source of pollen and nectar which bees can collect from.
As I have already mentioned some clovers I’ll start with the ladino clover, Dutch white clover, Alfalfa, Basswood, Apple, Blackberry, Barberry Juliane, Beggarweed, Bush Honeysuckle, Sourwood, Watermelon, Willows, Soybeans, Sunflower, Flowering Quince, Milkweed, Goldenrod, Winter Jasmine, Dark Opal, Corn, Cotton, Cucumbers and Fringed White Phacelia are some of the plants where bees can forage from.
A good beekeeper must inspect the hive regularly so the colonies must be opened and checked weekly in the production season. To inspect the colony pry the outside of the brood chamber loose, the remove the frames and observe the bees and the combs.
What you’d be looking for are Pearly white larvae these indicate health; if there’re grey, yellow brown or black larvae be alarmed as these are signs of disease or injuries.
Check for Eggs standing at the bottom of the cell…this indicates that the queen is laying eggs, should the eggs be on the sides of the cells these would be from the worker that’s laying eggs. (N:B workers are still able to lay eggs but they won’t be fertilised)
Continue to check if there’s Sunken, perforated cell caps, healthy brood will be noticed by convex cell caps. If there are unhealthy brood the cell caps will be concave and perforated with small holes.
Check the Queen’s egg laying pattern, a prolific queen will have a laying pattern of brood whereby very few cells have been skipped over most of the frames.
Proceed to inspect the Honey and pollen stores, in a colony there should be six super frames at the least or three deep brood chambers must be filled with capped honey, on average the frames hold about 15 to 18 lbs of honey.
This process will be repeated on all your frames that contain brood, part of inspecting the colonies requires that you feed, treat with antibiotics, replace damaged combs with foundation and re-queen should there be a need to do so. Make sure you prepare all the required items in advance and have them ready near you when you open the colony. Once you’ve inspected all the frames place them back in the hive in the original order and close the hive.
Hive & colony inspection requires that you keep a clear and concise calendar of all activities that will help you apply the right management practice at the right time. A plan will also help you on how to time your colony inspections and manipulation so that you detect any problems and diseases to prevent them from destroying your colonies.
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