E-book III of Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic Medieval poem, Troilus and Crisedye, incorporates the road:

And after winter folweth grene Might

Even with solely a cursory understanding of Center English, it is fairly apparent that Chaucer is commenting on Might being the primary month of the yr when all the things is verdant.

Winter is over, the bushes are in full leaf.

Nonetheless, regardless of my color blindness, the color I largely affiliate with Might is yellow … the flowering gorse, the broom and – after all – the oil seed rape (OSR).

Troilus and Crisedye was written within the mid-1380’s, a few centuries after rapeseed, or oil seed rape (Brassica napus), began to be grown as a crop in Europe. US readers will comprehend it as canola.

Rapeseed is without doubt one of the oldest farmed crops, with proof of its cultivation courting again no less than 6,000 years, and probably as many as 10,000, to the daybreak of agriculture. Though the acreage grown has decreased during the last decade or so (although it is up once more following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, normally a serious exporter) it stays a dominant presence by way of spring forage for bees in lots of areas of the nation.

These dazzling yellow fields produce enormous volumes of sugar-rich nectar, the quantity dependent upon the actual pressure and the genetics of the plant. A typical open pollinated OSR pressure similar to Money, Vogue or Quartz will produce about 0.5 µl of nectar per flower in 24 hours, with every plant bearing ~900 flowers (Carruthers et al., 2017) {{1}}.

The bees adore it.

A mixture of some dozen acres of OSR and good climate ensures that the supers fill quickly and, in the event you’re not cautious – or miss an inspection because of sickness – they will fill the brood field with ripening nectar, run out of house and swarm.

Adios.

Training, leisure or schadenfreude?

I’ve described a few of my beekeeping seasons as “a sequence of catastrophes interrupted by winter” which, though fortunately not the norm, has actually supplied a wealth of expertise from which I ought to have discovered.

It is also supplied plenty of anecdotes which I’ve used for instance explicit features of our passion within the hope that, even when I’ve not discovered, you would possibly.

I learn all of the feedback from subscribers, sponsors and people who help The Apiarist through the espresso ‘tip jar’. It is clear that many readers get pleasure from these tales of mishap and mayhem, hopefully from an academic perspective, or from easy leisure … or maybe it is schadenfreude?

Stuff goes flawed … not all the time, however regularly sufficient to remind me that I am working with the bees, and that I do not management them.

I would suppose I’m in management, but it surely would not take a lot to point out I am not … or, no less than, not fully.

Shirtsleeves and sou’westers

Right here in Scotland, the transition from April to Might usually sees a big change within the climate. Heavy rain, frost and snow just isn’t uncommon in April, however Might is normally extra benign.

My apiary journeys take me by means of Glencoe or previous Creag Meagaidh and its surrounding Munros, the excessive tops of which are sometimes snow-capped till no less than mid-Might.

This yr the climate has been a bit hotter and extra settled, and these hills now have little greater than wedges of snow packed into the excessive gullies.

However my beekeeping is finished at decrease altitudes, and this month I’ve skilled the total gamut from torrential rain, low temperatures and relentless haar to a sweaty and energy-sapping 25°C.

The place’s my neoprene beesuit?

For causes too uninteresting to recount (involving highway closures, ferry timetables and resort bookings) I needed to examine about ten colonies within the late afternoon on the primary Sunday of Might.

Not in itself an issue. It was a bit later within the day than I might like to start out beekeeping, however ‘wants should’ as they are saying. The day was cool and overcast within the morning, pleasantly heat at lunchtime earlier than cooling off by ~5 pm.

At which level the rain began.

The primary few tentative spots greeted me as I pulled on my beesuit and lit the smoker. As soon as I used to be ‘suited and booted’ it was undoubtedly spitting. By the point the primary hive roof was off it was raining, albeit gently.

But it surely seemed to be getting heavier.

It was.

In ~75 minutes nearly 7 mm of rain fell.

I used to be soaked to the pores and skin. A polycotton beesuit presents no safety from the rain. I had water sloshing round in my wellies. Upturned hive roofs (on which I might stood the supers) needed to be emptied of water earlier than returning them to the hive.

It was too moist to make use of the digital camera or the voice recorder. Heck, it was too moist to essentially use a hive device. It was, in equal measure, fully mad and surprisingly invigorating.

Self-preservation

All through the inspections the bees had been exceptionally well-tempered. No stings, no aggression, not more than a resigned ‘Actually? On this? OK, get on with it’.

While I would generously interpret this because the simply reward for years of repeated choice for well-mannered bees, I believe it was extra doubtless a easy act of self-preservation on their half.

I am not suggesting you do your inspections within the rain.

Nonetheless, if it is raining, and also you should examine the colonies, then you definitely can examine them within the rain.

I had no selection. The OSR was simply ramping up, the climate was set truthful, and I used to be involved that the bees would run out of house earlier than I returned every week later.

Nearly each colony I checked out wanted a further tremendous and/or house within the brood field.

In the identical verse as Chaucer’s ‘And after winter folweth grene Might’ is the road:

That after sharpe shoures been victories

This was greater than a pointy bathe, however I will nonetheless rely it as a win {{2}}.

Common inspections

The significance of normal inspections might be by no means better than through the OSR nectar circulation (and shortly afterwards {{3}}). Colonies which have constructed up strongly after the winter quickly outgrow the house they’ve accessible.

Inspections ought to be each seven days.

This not fairly the identical as as soon as every week.

The latter could possibly be interpreted as final Monday, this Tuesday and subsequent Thursday. Each seven days means final Monday, this Monday and subsequent Monday.

The timing is, like so many issues to do with beekeeping, decided by the event cycle of the queen. Colonies are likely to swarm on, or shortly after, a creating queen cell is sealed {{4}}. This happens about eight and a half days after the egg was laid. Subsequently, if the colony had no queen cells on the final inspection, they’re unlikely to swarm throughout the seven days earlier than the subsequent inspection.

Unlikely doesn’t imply ‘is not going to’ … beneath some situations colonies can swarm earlier than any queen cells are sealed.

If beekeeping was fully logical and predictable it could be a lot much less attention-grabbing … I am not even positive that this behaviour makes a lot sense to the colony.

I schedule apiary visits all through Might and early June each 7 days and stick rigidly to this schedule.

Except I can not.

And this month I had Covid and was mendacity in mattress feeling very sorry for myself after I ought to have been out checking my bees.

So, after I did lastly get to the apiary, after greater than every week of excellent climate in the midst of a powerful OSR nectar circulation, I used to be greater than just a little apprehensive about what I’d discover.

Tremendous early for swarm prevention

The hives had been all nice.

Heavy supers, just a little backfilling of the brood containers, however just one that seemed prefer it was considering of swarming (on which I began a vertical cut up, to be described in a future put up).

Partly to delay the necessity for swarm management, and partly because of laziness {{5}}, I have a tendency so as to add supers earlier than they’re wanted. Sometimes, I will add a few supers initially, and add a 3rd and even a fourth early/mid-flow {{6}}. Supers are added on to the highest of the stack … scientific research have proven it makes no distinction to how a lot honey is saved.

So the hives, all generously supered, did not miss me. And, extra importantly, I did not miss the queens.

Nucs and clipped queens

The identical can’t be stated of the overwintered nucs 😞.

With no house – apart from the brood frames – to retailer incoming nectar, and a quickly increasing foraging drive, issues had quickly obtained uncontrolled.

One nuc had swarmed, and the queen was lengthy gone. No eggs and a few sealed queen cells had been all of the proof I wanted.

You win some and also you lose some

Though the queen had gone, the bees had not. The field was full of staff. It is because I had clipped one wing of the queen, so stopping her from flying (or, no less than, flying nicely).

The colony swarms and the queen leaves, however she crashes to the bottom and is usually then misplaced.

On the day of the swarm, it is common to seek out the queen and a small cluster of bees on the bottom close to the hive. Nonetheless, over time (maybe later the identical day if it will get chilly), the bees return to the hive and abandon the queen.

Examine the ground

One other nuc was a bit extra attention-grabbing. Once more, it was full of bees (and shops). Nonetheless, on eradicating the frames to test for queen cells, I observed a variety of bees when wanting down by means of the open mesh flooring of the nuc.

Not all clipped queens perish. This one had managed to crawl again up the leg of the hive stand, however had failed to seek out the hive entrance {{7}}.

Having eliminated any queen cells and two full frames of shops (changing them with certainly one of basis and drawn comb) I gently shook the clump of bees again into the field, discovered the queen, checked she was OK {{8}}, after which returned her to the field as nicely.

Sure, they could nicely strive once more, however they have rather more house, the nectar circulation is lessening, the climate is predicted to be much less good, and I plan to be again there nicely earlier than they may produce any sealed queen cells.

It is a type of calculated dangers I mentioned a few weeks in the past.

Generally these ‘reassembled’ colonies rapidly dispose of the queen and go on to supply a substitute. Others simply return to being a correctly functioning colony.

Cell raisers and swarm prevention

Along with the early supering, the doubtless different purpose that swarm management was not (but) wanted is that I had ‘harvested’ a body or two of bees and brood from most of the hives to make up a double-decker queenless cell raiser for queen rearing.

I put together a big double nuc, consisting of two stacked containers, every with 6 brood frames. The Maisemore’s poly nucs are perfect for this because the bee house between the containers is right. Stacked Langstroth nucs are usually not, no less than not if you’re utilizing Nationwide frames in them.

I populate this field by harvesting brood frames and the adhering bees from no less than six colonies. That is an instance the place expertise and judgement turns into vital {{9}}. If the brood field has 8-9 frames of brood I will in all probability simply take away one, Sep 11 frames of brood and I will be completely happy to take a pair.

I select frames crammed with sealed and rising brood, and it’s vital {that a} queen just isn’t transferred to the nuc field! It is also vital that the frames chosen don’t have any queen cells on them {{10}}.

I exchange the eliminated frames with basis, foundationless or frames of drawn comb, relying upon what I’ve accessible and the perceived energy of the ‘donor’ colony.

It is an inexact science (no less than it’s after I’m concerned 😉), however this depletion of the workforce – maybe coupled with giving them some extra comb to attract – holds them again a bit and helps delay the necessity for swarm management.

Combine and match

It doesn’t matter what order the frames are in when added to the cell raiser. Because you’re mixing staff from 6+ colonies, they do not struggle. As a substitute, they quickly settle right down to rear the queen that they’re lacking.

I make up the cell raiser in a single apiary after which transfer it to a distant apiary to make sure I do not ‘lose’ bees that return to their unique hives.

Over the next week a lot of the brood emerges leaving a field full of younger bees … a perfect setting for rearing new queens.

In the event you test the hive entrance of a known-to-be-queenless cell raiser, chances are you’ll nicely see foragers returning laden with pollen … maybe not as many as to a queenright nuc, however greater than sufficient to make you (or me) query the assertion some beekeepers make about “pollen moving into (the hive) signifies there is a queen current”.

(Roughly) One week later

With no queen and no queen cells, it will likely be no less than two weeks earlier than the double-decker cell raiser might produce a brand new virgin queen.

Even after selecting frames full of sealed brood, the cell raiser all the time manages to seek out just a few eggs or larvae which can be younger sufficient to rear as new queens {{11}}. It’s subsequently vital that these cells are discovered and eliminated earlier than utilizing the field to rear your chosen queens.

After 7 days, any eggs laid instantly earlier than a body was transferred would have hatched and subsequently developed into 4 day previous larvae. These are too previous to rear as queens. Subsequently, in the event you take away all queen cells 7 days after assembling the cell raiser (the 2 central panels within the diagram above), it will likely be terminally queenless and within the good state to obtain your chosen eggs or larvae.

I separate the 2 brood containers and go away the higher field to the aspect whereas coping with the underside field. The bees have to be shaken off each body (into the field), and something wanting like an open charged or sealed queen cell have to be destroyed.

As soon as the underside field has been checked, add again the higher brood chamber and undergo that field totally as nicely.

Keep in mind that most of the bees shall be very younger and will not have ventured outdoors the hive but … be sure you shake them off the frames again into the field to keep away from dropping bees.

Examine the nuc, not simply the frames

Once I’d assembled my double-decker nuc I might included a few tremendous frames full of brood.

These had been within the donor hives to encourage the bees to attract drone comb beneath the tremendous body. Since that is a few of the first drone brood of the season, it acts as a mite-magnet. I had subsequently sliced it off (I do not need drones or mites in my cell raiser) and discarded it earlier than including the tremendous frames to the cell raiser.

By likelihood, certainly one of these tremendous frames had been pushed up towards the aspect wall of the nuc. Since all of the employee brood had emerged, I made a decision to omit this body and use the house created within the rearranged field to accommodate my cell bar body (see beneath).

When reassembling the nuc I felt resistance when including a brood body within the house that had beforehand been occupied by the tremendous body towards the aspect wall of the hive.

This aspect wall was coated with a 2 cm thick carpet of bees, however there was additionally clearly one thing extra strong ‘in the way in which’.

A mild puff of smoke and a little bit of probing about with a hive device uncovered two sealed queen cells.

These cells will need to have been drawn from the underside fringe of the tremendous body, changing into fused to the aspect wall throughout their building. Had I not found (and eliminated) them, assuming they had been intact, the cell raiser would have singularly failed to boost any cells.

And loosen up …

Checking the cell raiser for queen cells is, of necessity, a really disruptive course of.

The house created by elimination of a (now empty) brood body is organized in the midst of the higher field. Lastly, the cell bar body carrying the Jenter queen cups which is able to – sooner or later – include the eggs/larvae chosen for queen rearing is gently lowered down into the mass of bees.

I normally go away the cell bar body in situ to acclimatise for twenty-four hours earlier than including grafted larvae. This acclimatisation course of just isn’t actually wanted (there are research exhibiting equal charges of larval acceptance regardless of whether or not the cell bar body is acclimatised or not), but it surely actually does no hurt. To hurry the method alongside I usually spray the cell bar body with 1:1 w/v syrup to encourage the bees to clamber throughout it.

Extra importantly, this 24 hour acclimatisation interval permits the colony to calm down after the disruption I triggered rummaging by means of it for hidden queen cells.

I need the eggs/larvae I add to instantly obtain the undivided consideration of the nurse bees … and that’s more likely to happen in a peaceful colony.

It additionally permits me to loosen up earlier than doing the grafting or retrieving eggs/larvae from the donor colony (if I have been attempting to exploit the maternal impact) … each subjects I will cowl in a future put up.

Go test your hives … not simply the frames!

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Notes

Schadenfreude – that means ‘harm-joy’ – is of German origin. Whereas wanting up the etymology of schadenfreude I found that there is a little-known English equal, epicaricacy. This derived from a Greek phrase first attributed to Aristotle who, though not a beekeeper, was an acute observer of bees and beekeeping.

Unengaged readers

Subscribers – those that obtain the free newsletters/posts – however who by no means open the emails or sign-in to the web site, shall be unsubscribed from the e-newsletter (however not the positioning) in an try to cut back the amount of emails despatched to a extra manageable degree.

In fact, subscribers who by no means open the e-newsletter or sign-in to the web site is not going to see this announcement 😉.

References

Carruthers, J.M., Prepare dinner, S.M., Wright, G.A., Osborne, J.L., Clark, S.J., Swain, J.L., and Haughton, A.J. (2017) Oilseed rape (Brassica napus) as a useful resource for farmland insect pollinators: quantifying floral traits in standard varieties and breeding techniques. GCB Bioenergy 9: 1370–1379 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcbb.12438.

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{{1}}: Genic male sterile OSR hybrids produce 1.5-2 instances the quantity of nectar, however no pollen. For the uninitiated, 1 µl is 0.001 ml. OSR can produce half a teaspoon of nectar a day per plant.

{{2}}: My rudimentary understanding of Center English means that sharpe shoures really means ‘assaults’ reasonably than particularly referencing rain.

{{3}}: When bees now not engaged with nectar assortment usually resolve to swarm in spite of everything.

{{4}}: Climate allowing. They will not swarm in sharpe shoures.

{{5}}: Like hubris and impatience, a advantage for pc programmers, and beekeepers?

{{6}}: Bear in mind, that is Scotland; do not go anticipating double brood containers with teetering towers of supers needing a step-ladder so as to add/take away the roof.

{{7}}: In fact, I do not know she flew in any respect … she might need simply sauntered out of the doorway, flapped busily to point out prepared, then ambled off beneath the field. The nuc was in the midst of a stand, with hives on both aspect, so she would have needed to negotiate different hive entrances if she had clambered again up from the bottom.

{{8}}: 1 head, thorax and stomach, 2 antennae, 3.5 wings, 5 eyes, 6 legs and so on.

{{9}}: Which means, after all, that I do not all the time get it proper.

{{10}}: I normally put the body with the queen apart whereas deciding on frames to ‘harvest’. Nonetheless, I do not shake the bees off the chosen frames as there’s one other likelihood to destroy any queen cells. If there have been queen cells on these frames, it is doubtless the donor colony would wish swarm management … simply eradicating a body or two is not going to cease them!

{{11}}: In spite of everything, in the event that they did not, they’d be doomed.