Springtime in the Apiary

I have always found it difficult to explain to someone what I do for my job.  When I worked in computers, I always tried; but it was just difficult to explain the details.  So, usually I gave up and just said I was a computer geek.  Most could get that.

Now, I'm realizing that it is just as hard to explain beekeeping.  Most assume bees live by themselves in the wild, therefore you just put them in a box and that is the end of it.  However, when I put bees in a box, I take them out of nature and have an obligation to provide the best possible care for them.  Much like livestock or pets, I need to ensure they have food, water, medical care, and shelter.

In the spring, bees replicate themselves by swarming.  With the warming weather and abundance of nectar in flowering plants, swarming activity is eminent.  Nectar and pollen are stored in the honeycomb cells and will become a future food source for the bees.  This also stimulates the queen to lay eggs in honeycomb cells.  Soon, with all this food and baby production, all of the honeycomb cells will become full.  With a crowded home, the bees decide to replicate themselves as a colony.  So, they choose to make a new queen and half of the bees leave the hive to start a new home with the old queen.  Thus a swarm.

As a beekeeper, it is in my best interest to have as many bees as possible.  Each hive of bees that swarms is a loss of $125 worth of bees plus $200+ of honey.  So, swarm prevention is on my spring management list.  Very similar to calving or lambing on a farm, it is a time consuming task to check frequently to see when the time is right and assist  through the process.  The management style I choose depends on my desired outcome but can often mean creating 'artificial swarms' by splitting the hive or putting on additional honey super boxes so there is enough room for them to grow.

On the farm in the spring, farmers change from feeding hay(stored food) to putting livestock out on lush green pasture.   A similar transition takes place in the world of bees. They also have a stored food source for the winter- which is honey.  Additionally, as a keeper of the bees, I provide them an emergency food source to ensure there is enough food to get through an Indiana winter.  After all, the winter time provides no plants for them to visit.  In the spring, enough food needs to remain  available until flowers can provide the bees with a resemblance of a 'lush green pasture'.  Beekeepers call this a 'nectar flow'.  It might mean feeding them a sugar syrup supplement until the time is right, eventually removing any extra emergency stores, and adding honey super boxes to the hive.

Next, the bees have been cooped up in a box all winter long.  So, another spring task is to ensure the hive is clean is to clean up the bottom board.  Just like you would clean out the floor of a barn stall, you need to do the same thing for the bees. The bottom of the hive will contain a lot of debris.  Bees are really hygienic and may eventually clean this up.  But, I'm going to help them.  This requires a lot of heaving and lifting.  One of those boxes can weigh 60+ pounds and there are usually 2 of them.  These heavy boxes need to be lifted off the bottom board in order to get to the floor.  I also study the debris to see if I can learn anything - was there too much moisture and therefore mold?  Are there small hive beetles or larva?  How many varroa mites do I see?  Where is most of the trash?  Does it cover the entire bottom or just a portion?

What about the health of the hive?  Do I see deformed wings?  What about the bee poop?  Is it inside the hive?  Are there too many parasites?  Again, all something that farmers are used to doing except they look at the condition of the skin/coat/fur and examine feces for parasites.  If there are problems,  I have a responsibility to care for these bees and ensure their health.  The goal is to remedy any health issues prior to the bees storing honey for human consumption.

If I don't take care for my bees and they become sick or parasite infested, they could die or decide to leave the hive in search of a new home.  Either way, it's like I've sent my kids to school with a nasty flu virus.  The hive full of sick bees will eventually decline and not be able to protect their home.  Other bees in the area will realize there is food available in this virus ridden hive and rob it.  At this point, the virus not only impacted this one hive but many.  Not a very good stewardship plan for those with hives around me.

And, this just skims the surface of early spring management.  We haven't even talked about raising bees for others to buy, moving bees for pollination and to new locations, answering new beekeeper questions, honey flows and extraction, raising queens, equipment repairs, or creating 'the plan' for the rest of the summer.  So, if you are not a beekeeper, hopefully you understand a little more and see the value in that jar of honey you purchase.  If you are a beekeeper, hopefully you see that you need to provide the utmost animal husbandry skills to keep your bees well.  And, if you don't have that knowledge or time, you need to find a way to obtain it.  You owe it to the bees.  That is the difference between being a 'beekeeper' and a 'beehaver'.

As for me, I have around 70 hives spread out in Southern Indiana and the greater Louisville area.  Between that and the 50+ acres of grass that needs to be mowed at the airport, it's unusual to see me much during the spring.   If you do, it will be atop a tractor or in my veil.