Organovar
Abdulah VejzovicOnly healthier bees produce more
← Back to guide
Chapter 7

Swarms and honey extraction

From the video: Practical Beekeeping Part 7

📝
Transcript
Tap to jump
What will we do with the queen cells? On day 5 and 6 we'll tear down all the sealed queen cells, and we'll leave the ones just started, and we'll leave those queen cells — the best 2, 3, 4 queen cells that are about to be sealed, the ones assessed as good. We put back the cover board, the patty is standing by. What will happen in these two brood boxes? What will happen is that while all the brood emerges, while all this brood emerges over 21 days, up to 24 days — in that period this queen will also emerge, mate, and around day 25 to 26 she will already be laying eggs. So we will have a young queen introduced here that the bees chose — we left a few queen cells, the best ones, and they will choose the best one from those queen cells. Before the queen starts laying, this colony will have — since it's physically separated from the brood box — practically no brood, no brood. All the bees are on frames of honey and pollen, and this is now a good opportunity to treat the bees without brood, and the most effective treatment for bees without brood is oxalic acid. Here, look — we'll take 30 to 40 ml of oxalic acid, and since these two honey supers are broodless, They are separated by a solid divider, fiberboard, from this part — all the varroa from the productive colony is in this honey super, and all the varroa from the support colony is in the sealed brood that was there. Now all the varroa is on the bees, and we will treat with oxalic acid because there is no brood, and it's physically separated. After we've treated the bees, what will we do? We've treated with oxalic acid, the job is done. On this fiberboard solid divider we can place white paper soaked in oil to monitor and see how much varroa was in that confinement — in those roughly 16 frames of sealed brood. And we carried out this operation exactly at the start of the main honey flow. June 10th-12th, 22 days after day D, after forming these. In the preceding period, with the pre-swarms, we extracted some swarms before this operation of forming the honey producers. We partially extracted some swarms, but here we, as our people say, we nipped it in the bud, Nipped it in the bud, eliminated it right at the start of the main honey flow. So in August we don't have any fight against varroa, with no chemical treatments — we can add one pad of formic acid in August, more for hive disinfection than for varroa, but it knocks down whatever it knocks down. After treating. We remove, remove these two honey supers, we remove these two honey supers. What do we do — we take out the solid divider, because the honey flow is on, we check the scale, if there's positive intake, instead of the solid divider we put in the queen excluder. We spray the bees a bit with mint tea or diluted brandy, For the scent, but the honey flow won't cause any problems. Here in those two and a half days or so, the colony has already developed in the brood box. Now it will be relieved up here; the bees have all emerged, the honey flow has started — plus a third empty super, because the flow is going and they're storing. This would roughly be the honey producer for exploiting the main honey flow. What have we gained? Below we've now relieved this colony through the queen excluder — some bees will cross over and carry honey upstairs. Here we placed an empty super — now there are three honey supers, completely empty, without brood, where bees can store honey. These three supers can yield roughly 45 to 60 kilograms. 15 to 20 kilos of honey — depends on how full they are. If nature provides, we'll add this third honey super, we'll expand it. If not, these two will be enough, and if there's really nothing in nature, just one will suffice and we'll have to remove the other. The support colony stays as it is — here there's another possibility: the brood will have emerged. As it emerges, on day 14 and 15, we can take a frame of open brood, place it in this honey super, hold it 8 days, 9 — around day 24 we'll pull out this frame with open worker brood, make an incubator, and that way we can catch varroa. But we'll do it more effectively with oxalic acid, because the bees here in the honey supers are Broodless. Here's yet another possibility — after treating the honey supers of the productive colony, broodless, in the summer period. We move the honey supers aside, remove the entire brood box from the bottom board, then place the honey supers with the young queen who just started laying onto the bottom board. We cover it with the divider board that has the queen excluder. Then we return the entire brood box. The brood box from the bottom board goes onto the divider board with the queen excluder. And before that, from this old brood box that was on the bottom board, we take the queen and make a small swarm or nucleus, which we add to the support colony. When the foragers return, we also feed that swarm a little because it lost its foragers. Now in the productive colony we will have even more. Now in the productive colony we will have even more honey, because the colony has gained the instinct to collect more honey like a natural swarm — due to the young queen and the first eggs in that productive colony. We do this at the start of the main honey flow because in this third period all productive colonies reach their biological maximum of 5 to 7 kg of bees in mass.

The next video is at the bottom of the page — scroll down to continue ↓

Organovar
Organovar100% organic

Herbal contact preparation for varroa control — up to 98% effectiveness, no residues in honey. From just 1 EUR per hive.

📖

Guide

Swarms, varroa treatment, and utilizing the main honey flow

Broodless treatment — ideal opportunity

Since the honey super is physically separated from the brood box by the solid divider, there is practically no brood in the honey super — all bees are on frames of honey and pollen. This is an ideal opportunity for treatment, because all varroa from both colonies (production and support) are on the bees, with no possibility of hiding in the brood.

The most effective agent for treating broodless bees is oxalic acid. A dose of 30 to 40 ml per colony is used.

Monitoring and results

White paper soaked in oil is placed on the solid divider to monitor varroa drop. This operation is performed at the beginning of the main honey flow (June 10–12), approximately 22 days from setup.

In the previous period, varroa is partially removed with drone combs, and this treatment finishes off the varroa right at the start of the main honey flow. Result: in August there is no need to fight varroa with chemical agents. One pad of formic acid can be added — more for hive disinfection than for varroa.

Setting up the honey producer

After treatment, the solid divider is removed and a queen excluder is placed. The bees are sprayed with mint tea for scent. A third empty super is added — and the honey producer for the main flow is set up.

Three honey supers can yield 45 to 60 kilograms of honey (15–20 kg per super, depending on the nectar flow). If the flow is not strong, one or two supers are sufficient.

Young queen for higher yield

There is an additional technique: the honey super with a young queen that has just started laying is placed on the bottom board, covered with a queen excluder, and the brood box is returned. The old queen is taken from the old brood box and a small nucleus is made, which is added to the support colony.

The production colony with a young queen gains the instinct for more intensive honey gathering — like a natural swarm. This is done at the beginning of the main honey flow because in the third period colonies reach their biological maximum of 5 to 7 kg of bees in mass, enabling them to exploit even the shortest nectar flow.

Previous

← Auxiliary colonies and treatment

Next

Winter preparation →