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Your Bees know it’s the solstice. You should too! 14:50 hours of sunlight.
This year the heavenly bodies seem to have conspired to sweeten the pot with an event we haven’t seen in 70 years.
The summer solstice isn’t a rare event, a full moon even less so. But they’re both special, and when they just so happen to occur on the same day, as they will this year? That’s once-in-a-lifetime special.
The 2016 North American summer solstice happens in Napa on Monday, June 20, 2016 at 3:34 PM. That’s the very moment when, essentially, the sun stands still at its northernmost point as seen from Earth. Its zenith doesn’t yearn north or south, but waits patiently at the Tropic of Cancer before switching directions and heading south again. This is where the word solstice comes from; the Latin solstitium, from sol (sun) and stitium (to stop).
This is the first full moon to fall on the June solstice since the year 1967, which some recall as the year of the Summer of Love, a social phenomenon centered on San Francisco, London and other places around the globe.
But what the my bees…..
The summer solstice is important because it signals the end of bee season, just as the winter solstice signals the beginning. “The end of bee season?” you say. “But it’s just getting started!”
Here’s the thing: In temperate North America, the bee colony is at it’s smallest in late November and December. After the winter solstice, it gradually starts to build. The queen lays more eggs; there is more activity in the nursery, slowly the population increases. By the end of June most colonies are as strong as they are likely to get.
Basically, the six months from January through June are months of increase, followed by the months of July through December, which are months of decrease. Sure there are variations and fluctuations depending on local climate, weather patterns, and individual colonies, but the trend is six months of increase and six months of decrease. You can see the yearly pattern in your colonies.
Up through June, beekeeping is as easy as breathing. In most cases, the rate of growth in your hive is greater than the growth of most predators and parasites. You wonder, “What’s all the fuss about mites?” You don’t see them anywhere. Are beetles and moths really a problem? You wonder what’s so hard about raising queens, catching swarms, or making honey. Like a rising market, everything looks rosy. The whole beekeeping thing is a piece of cake.
By the beginning of July things start to change. Much of the continent is headed toward a nectar dearth. Almost imperceptibly the ratio of problems to bees shifts. Swarms virtually cease. The swarms that are cast are usually small or weak. Just as the poem says, “A swarm in July is not worth a fly.” Splits take longer to build up. It’s a little harder to raise good queens. Honey production slows to a crawl. Even flowers that are in bloom may have less nectar because rainfall has dropped and temperatures climbed.
New problems arise. Your bees spend all their energy fanning. Robbing honeybees appear out of nowhere. Marauding yellow jackets and hornets case your hives looking for a meal. Your sweet little honeybees suddenly become skittish and would rather you stay away. Your neighbors complain about bees in their pool and hummingbird feeders.
Like yellow jackets and wasps, mite populations continue to grow, even while your honeybee populations are dropping. Suddenly, it seems like there is a handful of mites for every bee. Weaker hives may be overcome with beetles. By August workers are throwing out the drones in a last ditch effort to prepare for the coming winter. Foraging continues as long as there is something to collect, but it is harder, consumes more energy, and takes more time.
The solstice is not like a switch. Bees are not one way on the 21st and a different way on the 22nd, but the change is sure to come. The seasoned beekeeper knows this intuitively, but a new beekeeper needs to be aware that change is in the wind. The key is to be ready and to handle each situation as it arises. Remember: beekeeping doesn’t take much time, but timing is everything.
Be a good beekeeper, know more.
BOCA SUMMER BEE MEETINGS Monday, June 20. 6 p.m. – Pot luck dinner
These are the little micro sensors that I use for temperature and humidity for the inside of the hive. You can see the first sensor that I installed three weeks ago. The bees covered it with a thick layer of summer propolis, gooey, sticky and really messed up my readings. (I Firmly believe bees dislike plastic anything.), I decided to wire it a little differently and use a queen cage as housing to protect it a little better.
Why do I do this?
You do not need to go into your hive and rip apart there home every 2-3 weeks. It takes them another week to put everything back In order when they could be doing more important stuff!
The front entrance will tell you 1. Are eggs being laid. 2. What colors and hence kind of pollen they are forging 3. Are they carrying water. 4. Is a fungal infection or infection present 5. Robbing 6. Play flight of young 7. Orientation flights
Your observation tray will tell you. 1. Where the brood nest is. 2. are they depositing nectar and pollen or are they consuming it. 3. Where are the males hatching and where the females are. 4. What is your mite load, hive beetle and moth droppings. 5. Humidity or ventilation problems.
Just lifting your top cover peering down will tell you 1. what they have drawn and where. 2. Is the hive healthy and bees covering all the frames. 3. Off odors or appearance. 4. Can you see queen cells in the middle of the frames. (Superseding cells) 5. Ventilation issues.
Lifting the brood super a crack will tell you 1. Is the comb being drawn straight. 2. Are any queen cells for swarming being formed. 3. Are they connecting the top and bottom frames. (Expand space)
My hive monitors add and quantify my observations with real time data.
1. Weight, humidity and temperatures inside and out. 2. When they leave and come home (weight) 3. Are they bringing in nectar or pollen or water (humidity) 4 are they being robbed or in a dearth (weight) 5 is the ventilation correct (temperature and humidity) 6 bee counter, who comes and goes and if a large number do not return due to …..
I am hands off, natural, treatment free, and am a proponent of locally adapted genetic stock derived from splits of good bees or vetted swarms.
I rally against any requeening or nuc’s from any breeder even in Napa or any treatment that makes bees domesticated against there bees natural abilities, genetics and instinct. Be it robbing screen, mite loads or bad queen.
All that genetic material is managed with my stock. And I spread the wealth to any bee keeper around me free of charge, as they do with theirs to change the health of a region with like minded keepers and strong bees.
It’s not the final answer but it’s not part of the problem.
You will never learn anything by treating your bees like captive work animals or pets. Your not doing anyone any favors.
Remember there not our bees, there everyone’s.
How to Start a Beehive
Beekeeping is nothing more than keeping a colony of bees in a hive and harvesting the honey that they produce. Sounds simple right? Well, not really… Honey bees are not (and cannot be) domesticated so you need to know a lot about how a colony how to start a beehive, manage it and be successful …
The post How to Start a Beehive appeared first on EbeeHQ.
source https://www.ebeehq.com/getting-started-beekeeping/how-to-start-a-beehive/
This article was particularly helpful to me, as a newly starting beekeeper. If you’re looking at becoming a beekeeper, or at least are interested in reading more about how exactly to start a beehive. I would recommend visiting EbeeHQ and checking out their high-quality beekeeping articles.
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