Bee population management (Part II)

Form artificial swarms for overwintering and production the following season:

Regardless of the method by which they are formed, they are fed at will on protein and energy feeds according to the principles described in the previous article for adult production families.

From our own experience we can see that during the period July-September, too abundant nectar collection can negatively affect the queens’ nests by blocking the nest. It can also be seen that swarms formed during July usually enter winter with a higher population than those formed earlier, which mostly decline even if they gather more honey reserves from nature by their own efforts.

To prepare the population for overwintering, swarms should exceed 2 kg of bees and 5 combs of brood as early as the first part of August, before the brood of the generation that will overwinter. Keeping bees in a smaller population after the first decade of August jeopardizes the quality and longevity of the bees that will overwinter, and subsequent unification does not solve the problem of the quality of this population. So the last swarms are formed at the beginning of August, and the nuclei or colonies left to catch them in the weak fall pay the price for this delay by compromising the bee population they contain. It is also during this period that swarms and colonies weakened by poor-quality que queens are broken up and unified.

We consider that overwintering of families smaller than 1.5 kg of bees or their unification after the first decade of August is too risky and only genetic variants with good overwintering traits strongly fixed in the genome have a chance of success, even if these units benefit from additional warming such as the organization of a common swarm from several micro-colonies. And even with these good overwintering traits, poor management of population strength (delayed or lack of unifications) or additional fall feeding, decreases the potential efficiency of that adult bee population.

Populations that are to receive a new queen are not exposed to direct sunlight or light (open crates for long periods of time) and are kept without a queen (either caged or penned) for about an hour after orphaning. Longer periods (several hours or days) of orphaning are very stressful and lead to attrition, drift (migration) to queen units, rescue muzzle building, and even aggressive behavior towards the queen to be received.

To give the flying bees an opportunity to leave them as young bees more readily accept new queens, swarms from bro brood combs are formed on the same hearth with an additional young bees shaken from 2-3 brood combs. Another possible alternative would be to form from combs that have been in the presence of a queen for 8-10 days, but separated from her with Hanneman’s grace to prevent larval bro brood. Larval brood is a factor in increasing the aggressiveness of bees towards new queens.

The cage of a queen on the verge of being accepted is covered with bees that roam freely and respond to stimuli, i.e. they shy away from the touch of a finger. This does not mean that there are no (usually old) bees that are still aggressive and may kill the prematurely released queen.

An unaccepted queen’s hive is covered with bees that sit tightly on it with their heads between the bars, looking like ‘hedgehogs’. The bees do not respond in any way to touch, remaining in a state of aggression, glued with their heads to the cage, eager to penetrate the cage towards the queen.

Swarms must be treated with acaricides against Varroa mites, preferably essential oils that persist in the hives for more than 10 days.

Evaluation of Varroa infestation in colonies fed with Dulcofruct products revealed that while the natural mortality of Varroa mites is 22% of the population, the mortality in families where the cakes persisted for more than 12 days in the hives was 50% for Energetic Forte cakes (due to the thymol contained), 65% for a prototype cake not yet in mass production and 69% (between 64% and 76%) for families fed with Super Protein Cake. These products reduce the Varroa population and this is a further argument for their use in the production of biological material.

Depending on the season, in order to give the swarms a chance to develop until the overwintering period, we recommend that they fall into the following minimum size categories Dadant or ME:

Swarms on beehives with young (relatively full of young, and in the case of beehives with few young, the number of young is increased):

• 1 comb with brood + 1 with bees in April, of course with queens from the previous year;
• 2 beehives with brood + 1 with bees in May;
• 3 young beeches in June;
• 4 young beeches in July;
• 5 brood combs in early August, with the risk that the population may be compromised by poor quality queens that do not have time to be evaluated before overwintering.

This type of swarms can be formed at the beginning of the season with a botca instead of a mated queen, they can also be brought into the above described size parameters according to the calendar period by hardening with brood frames after the mating of the queens.

Packaged flocks, in the experience of western European breeders, must have a minimum:

• 1 kg of bees in May;
• 1.5 kg of bees in June;
• 2 kg of bees in July;
• 2.5 kg of bees in early August.

The tradition of these take-away swarms has been consolidated in areas with rainy, Atlantic or mountain climates with an abundance of quality pollen. Protein (quality) feeding throughout the period from formation to overwintering is essential for the success of this method.

The bees can be released on artificial combs, and these can be interspersed with one or more constructed combs, provided that these combs have never been in the hive during winter (winter is the period when the combs become contaminated with Nosema spp. spores).

Bees are handled, moved or released at all times during the evening to avoid drift. The swarms must be placed in a different bee house, at a distance of more than 3-4 km from the place of origin of the adult bee population.

In the R&D department of the company “Dulcofruct” in 2019, we formed a series of swarms in the last week of July with an average amount of 1.6 kg of bees. This quantity (too low according to standard information) was maintained during overwintering within the very good parameters of 1.3-1.5 kg (5 well populated Dadant combs) in swarms that consumed 6 kg of protein cake, i.e. 0.6 kg of crude protein, and decreased to less than 0.5 kg by March in those that consumed only 3 kg of protein cake.

We estimate that the first type of cake (actually “Dulcofruct” Super Protein Cake) could have been consumed in quantities of more than 10 kg / swarm if it had been received at discretion, and the second type of cake (a type of cake commercialized on the Romanian market) could not have been consumed in higher quantities due to low digestibility and loading of the digestive tract of adult bees. The swarms consumed a further 15 kg of syrup, of which 6 kg Apinectar Plus or Apitotal (diluted with 30% water) in the first 5 days after training and 9 kg BeeNectar (undiluted) in early September.

The conclusion that emerges is that the area (plain in western Romania) could not have ensured the survival of the population by feeding on pollen from the environment alone.

The surprise is that the population of swarms that consumed 6 kg of Super Protein Gingerbread is more abundant and healthier than in most families that received only 1 kg of protein gingerbread in early September.

Production of biological material

Recommendations and practical examples from the experience of the “Dulcofruct” R&D team

Production and mating of queens – Production and care of drones:

Although it may seem less interesting to many readers, we begin our exposition with our method of producing and maintaining drones for the main reason that it begins chronologically before the production of queens for a series of matings, but also for the reason that this action is much more important than we are used to consider.

Drone production begins 45 days before the first queen mates with that generation of drones and occurs at times when bees have a natural tendency to rear drones. This tendency is most intense in spring and decreases towards summer until it fades after the summer solstice. What is essential is abundant feeding or natural foraging (which cannot be relied on due to its unpredictability created by weather swings) and the greatest possible strength of colonies.

“Father” families must have queens with proven performance by testing and have higher yields if their queens are older than 2 winters. When starting drone brood, enlarge the nest with an empty frame – in which case abundant nectar collection or more consistent feeding with water-diluted syrup for honeycomb building is needed, or it can be enlarged with a honeycomb built with drone cells. In the immediate vicinity of the honeycomb place a honeycomb filled with larval brood. If necessary, the queen can be isolated on the frame with the drone honeycomb. From this point until the drones are completely hatched, protein cake is given at discretion and the weight of the family should never decrease from one day to the next, but only increase or at most stagnate. Any weight loss that occurs is immediately followed by feeding syrup to compensate.

The laying period is 4 days for drones intended for artificial insemination or 7-10 days for those intended for natural mating, after which the frame framed with 2 combs with larval brood is either isolated from the nest with the queen and the rest of the brood by Hanneman diaphragm or moved to another body where the queen has no access – also due to the Hanneman diaphragm between the body and the queen’s nest.

1-4 days before the hatching of the first drone (20-23 days after the onset of directed laying), “orphan” colonies with drones are formed as follows: between 2 combs with food and bees, 4 combs with exclusively capped brood covered with bees and 3 combs of drones (from 3 “father” colonies) are added from the isolated area. Each colony is equipped with a feeder of at least 2.5 l. A Hanneman cage with a queen (even unmated or of poor quality) may be added to the colony, to which, after signs of acceptance, the bees have access, but which does not have access to the combs to lay.

From this point on, feeding drones to beehives becomes very important because regardless of the state of nature, worker bees do not have the ability to feed drones by foraging. Feed 1-3 kg of protein cake and 1-3 kg of energy cake/brood every 1-7 days, depending on the intensity of consumption, and a 50-60% water (40-50% dry matter) syrup feeder every 5-10 days.

To ensure genetic purity, “father” and “orphan” families can be provided with Hanneman grates at the warren. At the age of 8 days of the first drones (32 days from the onset of laying), the colony of drones should be on the permanent site where it will remain until the end of its mission, the warren is freed from the bars because at this time the drones start their cleaning and orientation flights.

In order to ensure genetic purity, this time must take place on the hearth of the isolated mating station in the absence of other drones or in another place isolated from other drones. For drones intended for instrumental mating, various types of aviaries can be set up in which they can fly, but with many risks, or the flight can take place freely either way, but after the drones have hatched in a Hanneman isolator in which the combs have been placed with them and they have been marked (as queens) daily and then released into the colony until the end of the 4 days of hatching, and only marked drones are used for mating.

Transportation is done by placing a hollow catenary between the body with beeches and the hillock to shelter the population during the transportation.

Such a well-fed colony can maintain drones for a period of 10 – 20 days of active mating season, starting from day 45 after the first drone egg is laid, until after day 55, even 65.

For queen rearing, queen rearing methods can only be used in periods or areas without excess nectar. In the absence of nectar they will be fed extra, but in the case of excess nectar, a large proportion of the clutches will be underfed, destroyed or over-brooded, resulting in uneven queens of very different qualities due to inconsistent feeding by the dowitchers.

For safety and high quality results we have chosen to use the Monk Adam rearing method, with slight modifications. Thus, the first preparations for rearing are made from 15-17 days to 27 days after the onset of drone-directed laying. The biological rearing material is preferably chosen from valuable queens that can (indirectly) participate in mating through the drones born to them, which may even be the “father” families.

Choose one such family and place a beehive full of combs with capped brood from the ‘father’ families or brood produced according to the method described in the previous article. Be careful that the combs do not carry any snouts, which are destroyed at any stage! Place the Hanneman grid on top of the hive, and above the grid a body with the family in place. The feeding of protein cake at the discretion of the colony thus extended is begun.

Within 10 days of this action, the top queen colony rises and moves to another site. An additional 3-4 dodo combs can be shaken over the below-gray population from the larval brood in the queen colony, being careful not to shake out the queen. Check the combs in the lower body to remove any botches, remove the emptiest of the combs and rearrange by compacting the unhatched brood and making room for the botch-holder frame between 2 frames of capped brood as full as possible. The breeder is fed protein cake.

According to the literature, 60 larvae can be introduced into such a brooder, but we usually introduce 45 larvae on a single frame of a brood frame. An amount of 400-1000 ml of diluted honey syrup may be given, especially if nectar collection is poor. The next day, check and reposition the pots with accepted larvae towards the middle of the supports and a comb with larval brood can be brought next to the frame. A less than 80% larval starter indicates too low (scattered) population or the presence of a queen in the colony.

5, maximum 6 days after the insertion of the brood frame (the time of capping the combs), rearrange the brood by bringing the capped brood back to the combs (obligatory) and pulling the empty combs from which the bees hatched to the periphery or removing them. At this point, one or more bodies of larval brood covered with bees (check to make sure that they are not carrying queens from the hives of origin) are placed on top of the colony, which will also populate the mating nuclei. So the size of the frames with larval bro brood should be suitable for the mating nuclei used. The population is again fed on protein cake.

Alternatively, the bots can be moved into the hatchery or given to orphaned mating nuclei by placing them on the brood near the hatcher (at the risk of the temperature being lower than in the brooder or hatcher). In this variant, a second set of larvae can be brought in for starter and rearing.

At 10 days after translocation, the bots are mature and can be closed in hatching cages or in our variant, the brood colony is divided into mating nuclei. Each clutch settles on the brood on the frames added on day 5. Typically we divide a colony into 30-33 mating nuclei by dividing the population into nuclei next to the frames with brood and clutches. The rescue bots on bro brood combs can be ignored and the queens will destroy them after hatching. They may be an indicator of queen non-hatching if they persist intact more than 2 days after nucleus populating, which is the hatching deadline for queens reared under directed rearing. Remaining empty combs may melt or remelt, and a weak colony may be established on the site.

If the mating nuclei are already populated, the population that has grown the bots can be used to form artificial swarms with mated queens. If it is desired to remove drones from the population of bees to populate the nuclei, this population is completely shaken off by forcing it through Hanneman’s grace to repopulate the drone-free combs from which it was shaken.

Nuclei are fed by pre-filling feeders with energy cake. They are kept closed in the dark and cool if they are not populated in the evening, and in the evening the bees can be released by Hanneman’s grace to the warren on another hearth or they can be kept in the cool and dark with good ventilation of the nuclei for another 1-6 days.

Hanneman’s Gratia rise from the nucleus warps on days 6-10 after queen hatching (8-12 after nucleus populating or 18-22 after larvae hatching), at which time the nuclei are fed abundantly with water-diluted syrup. For mating flight, they need temperatures above ^21°Cand sunny, windless weather.

The queens need liquid food and high temperatures after mating, which are provided by the hatched brood and the ventilation of freshly fed syrup.

By using these breeding methods we will have a higher proportion of drones of the desired genetic material, but we will have to keep in mind to ensure the genetic diversity of the biological material in the long term. Lack of diversity and inbreeding between breeding queens leads to genetic degeneracy through co inbreeding. It is best to use as a source of larvae several genetically valuable queens of as diverse and unrelated as possible. It is also a good idea to have ‘father’ families throughout the year and in consecutive years to have record queens of the most diverse and least closely related origins.