Building Colony Population for the Honey Flow

Now that dandelions are out in full force the bees also have trees, domesticated and native varieties of fruits and vegetables to gather nectar and pollen from, they no longer need sugar water feeders. Jen and I have removed all feeders from Langstroth hives.

Entrance reducers and inside as well as outside insulation have all been removed.

We do leave our top bar feeder in a few weeks longer, since the bees have to build raw comb with no
foundations to start with.

The more foragers a colony has increases the amount of resources brought into the hive.

Here are some tips for increasing honeybee population.

1) Keep a water source near the hive.

2) Keep pests and chemicals away from and out of the hive. Local businesses who spray chemicals to kill mosquitoes are honeybee killers as well. Chemicals may not be safe for humans either.

There are safer ways of killing mosquitoes, such as using mosquito vac machines.

3) Complete hive checks when the sun is highest in the sky (12-3 PM) every 10-12 days consistently. If you see the queen and evidence she is still laying eggs, remove all queen cups and cells.

3) Pull some of the frames with pupa and other stages of brood into the middle of the 2nd box to encourage the bees to build out the brood nest.

4) Spray sugar water on both sides of bare foundation.

5) If rain and weather cooler than 50* is in the forecast for longer than a couple days, slip a pollen patty into the hive (lay it on top of the frames in the top box) and don't forget to cut an x into the wax paper so the bees can access the food source with their proboscis.

6) We will add honey supers in a couple weeks. We don't use queen excluders to allow bees to store honey easier and this is a personal preference. I suspect having to squeeze through a queen excluder when full of nectar slows down efficiency during the honey flow.

Ants?

1. Sprinkle cinnamon around the perimeter of the base of the hive. Since cinnamon is water soluble, re-apply after rain OR . . . Place each of the legs of a hive table in a bucket of water.