Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
paper, replace any honey supers above this, and close up the colony. This is called the
newspaper method
of uniting colonies. It is easy and generally successful.
The bees from both sides gradually remove the paper (in a day or several days) and
carry it outside. In the process, the chemical messages from the queen below, coupled
with the multitude of bees from the colony below that begin streaming up, essentially
overwhelm the addition. The queen's pheromones spread throughout both colonies and
begin to bring the two together. At the same time the laying workers are affected by the
queen's pheromones and slow down or stop laying. They generally don't last very long
anyway. After a week or so, the union is as complete as it is going to be, and where
there were two, now there is one colony.
Preventing this extreme measure and the resultant colony loss is, certainly, less work
and less expensive. Colonies that are queenless almost always have some distinct, no-
ticeable behaviors that provide clues to the situation.
Broodnest
A broodnest in a typical colony is oval shaped. This is where the queen deposits her
eggs, the larvae are fed, and the sealed brood is kept. Though the volume of this
football-shaped region changes during the season as bees enlarge it, the shape is relat-
ively constant.
The cells in the top two-thirds or so of the broodnest have pollen placed in them by
returning pollen-collecting foragers so the pollen is close to the young bees that need
this food.
Nurse bees, which need pollen in their diet to complete development, spend their
first few days in the warm, safe center of the nest, close to the food. They also need
pollen to produce the glandular food they feed to the developing brood. Keeping pollen
close to the broodnest is a matter of efficiency and necessity.
Surrounding the pollen ring, on the sides and above the broodnest, the bees store
ripened honey. The honey stored closest to the brood is continuously used for food and
replenished. Above the broodnest, the bees store the surplus honey needed to feed the
colony during the part of the year when plants are not producing nectar. The temperat-
ure in the central part of the broodnest, when brood is present, is held at a constant 95°F
(35°C).
The design of the broodnest serves several purposes. When the colony is young and
small, the broodnest begins close to the top of the nest. As the nest expands, the brood-
nest area migrates toward the bottom, following the expansion.
