Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Something to keep in mind about your package: No new bees were produced
for at least 21 days. Usually, it is closer to four weeks. During that time the bees
that came in your package have been making beeswax comb, tending the queen,
feeding the young, foraging, and guarding.
This three- to four-week period is about as stressful as it can get in a colony.
The demand for food, especially pollen for the house bees to turn into worker jelly,
is extreme. Sugar syrup is a wonderful carbohydrate source, but protein is needed
also. Foragers are scrambling to collect pollen, especially because you are provid-
ing sugar. It's a hard time in your colony until the new bees begin to emerge.
If you find her, close up the colony and give her two more days to start laying. If
after all this nothing's happening, something's wrong and she needs to be replaced. If
you don't find her, order a replacement just as soon as you can—that day, if possible.
Honey Flow Time
A newly introduced queen starts laying eggs at a slow pace. She has already laid some
eggs before the queen producer sent her to you, but then went for many days confined
to her cage. Once released, this young queen's egg-laying rate builds slowly, starting at
perhaps 100 eggs a day for a bit, gradually increasing to as many as 1,500 per day when
all conditions are favorable. The rate depends on the health of the colony, available pol-
len, favorable foraging weather, and adequate space.
The bees generally begin building comb in the center frames, using most of the space
from top to bottom in the bottom box and anywhere from none to all of the frames from
top to bottom in the second box from the bottom. Usually, it's most of both, but the bot-
tom of the frames in the top box and the top of the frames in the bottom box get built
first. The ends of the frames also are left to fill later.
When there is comb being built on most of five or six frames in the bottom box, and
four or five in the top box, it's time to add a third box. At the same time, switch pos-
itions of empty frames and frames with comb, but not brood, placing those with some
comb next to the edge of the box. This rearrangement encourages the bees to fill all
combs, rather than use only the center frames in the boxes. If you don't switch frames,
the bees may “chimney” their living quarters, building all the way to the top but only
in the center. During this buildup time there may be a nectar flow from early and mid-
spring blooms. Nonetheless, maintain the feeder at all times to ensure there is always
sugar and water in the hive.
Here's a handy tip: When you add the third box for your brood, add the queen ex-
cluder and check and make sure you have two or three honey supers ready to add. If not,
