The Ethics Of Bee Swarm Collecting

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1 A non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of beekeeping May 2013 The Wasatch Beekeepers association is dedicated to the continued education and promotion of beekeeping. Beekeepers offer a service to the community and nation in a time where bees are dying at a rapid place. We believe that through education, we can help other beekeepers stay current in the areas of medications, equipment, bee diseases, problems, etc. Beekeepers can find support and knowledge from each other and each other experiences. The Ethics Of Bee Swarm Collecting Being on the swarm list is not just an opportunity, it is a responsibility You have received a call about a swarm of bees. What do you do? Make sure you are talking to the property owner and they are giving you permission to access their property to remove the swarm. If you are not talking to the property owner get the owner s information. Ask questions, lot of questions. Make sure you have bees. Are the bees yellow? If so you probably don t have bees. You are probably dealing with wasps or yellow jackets. Do you see a cluster of bees hanging from a tree, wall, shed? How big is the cluster? Compare it to a basketball. How long have the bees been there? Do you see a cluster or do you have bees going in and out from a structure. If the bee have been there for a while or they are flying in and out of a structure you most likely have an established hive and that will require a different tactic. If it is an established hive inside a building you may have to do a cut out. If you are doing a cut out you are responsible for any damage done by you in the process of removing the bees. If the bees are clustered in a tree determine how far up they are. Remember no swarm of bees if worth falling off of a 30 foot ladder and injuring or possibly killing yourself. Have any chemicals been used on the bees? If they have been sprayed you don t want those bees in your apiary. Please, if you have a successful swarm capture notify The Wasatch Beekeepers swarm coordinator I am trying to put together some demographics about our swarm calls and that is difficult to do without sufficient data. We can use the data to show what a service our organization offers. That brings me to my next point. Swarm calls are not just for the free bees Early in the season swarm calls are fun and a way to get free bees. That is not what swarm collecting is all about. People are frightened of bees and a swarm landing in their yard can be a traumatic event. One of the main reasons we do swarm removal is that it is a public service. Everyone wants to be on the swarm list early in the season but nobody wants to be bothered later in the year. If you are willing to go for the free bees you should also be willing Dana Hunsaker Wasatch Beekeepers Association Swarm Coordinator 1. 1

2 to help get bees out of people s yards before they become a nuisance. Who owns the bees gathered on a swarm call and is it ethical to sell them? Most people I know who really get serious about swarm removal have money invested in equipment to make the removals safer. Nothing is more depressing than to drive 25 miles on a swarm call only to find a pile of dead bees because someone has poisoned them. The person who gathers the bees owns the swarm. It is a bummer to have a hive swarm but if your bees swarm you are doing something wrong. If a swarm collector wants to sell or trade the bees the consensus is there is nothing unethical about doing that. You spent the gas money to get to the swarm, used your tools to collect the swarm so the bees are yours to do with as you please. r Beekeepers Shop South 1380 West Orem, UT Open every Saturday 9am to 4pm all summer long Everyone is invited to come and get any beekeeping equipment and supplies they need, or just come and talk honey bees. Knight Family Honey offers a unique and basic way of ordering your beekeeping equipment. We offer a straight forward approach to purchasing high quality beekeeping equipment for less. We buy by the truck load and you save. All of the necessary tools and equipment you need for starting up and maintaining honey bees without wasting time and money. Make us your one stop shop! We have everything you need too get you on your way to keeping bees and harvesting your own honey. Get started the Knight way! Quality not Quantity Mention this ad and get an additional 10% off any purchase Saturday May 26, 2013 and Saturday June 1, 2013 Are You Interested In Advertisement in the WBA Newsletter? We will be taking ads from local members of the Wasatch Beekeepers for the monthly newsletters. For information call Denise Hunsaker

3 a Planting Flowers for Your Bees Flowers and bees are a perfect match. Bees gather nectar and pollen enabling plants to reproduce. In turn, pollen feeds baby bees and nectar is turned into honey to be enjoyed by the bees and you, the beekeeper. Everyone s happy. While many kinds of trees and shrubs are bees prime source of pollen and nectar, a wide range of flowers contributes to bee development and a bumper crop of honey. You can help in this process by adding some of these flowers to your garden or by not removing some that already are there. Did you know that many weeds actually are great bee plants, including the pesky dandelion, clover, goldenrod, and purple vetch? You can grow all kinds of flowering plants in your garden that not only will add beauty and fragrance to your yard but also give bees handy sources of pollen and nectar. You ll hear the warm buzz of bees enjoying them before you even realize the plants are in bloom. Each source of nectar has its own flavor. A combination of nectars produces great tasting honey. Not all varieties of the flowers described in the sections that follow produce the same quality or quantity of pollen and nectar, but the ones that listed here work well and bees simply love them. Asters (Aster/Callistephus) The Aster family has more than 100 different species. The aster is one of the most common wildflowers ranging in color from white and pink to light and dark purple. They differ in height from 6 inches to 4 feet and can be fairly bushy. Asters are mostly perennials and blooming times vary from early spring to late fall. However, like all perennials, their blooming period lasts only a few weeks. Several varieties can be purchased as seeds, but you ll also find some aster plants offered for sale at nurseries. Callistephus are china asters, which run the same range of colors, but produce varied styles of flowers. These pincushions-to-peony style flowers start blooming late in summer and continue their displays until frost. They are annuals. Plants can be bought potted from local nurseries or purchased by seed. Sunflowers (Helianthus/Tithonia) Sunflowers are made up of two families. They provide the bees with pollen and nectar. Each family is readily grown from seed, and you may find some nurseries that carry them as potted plants. When you start sunflowers early in the season, make sure that you use peat pots. They 1. 3

4 are rapid growers that transplant better when you leave their roots undisturbed by planting the entire pot. Helianthus annuus include the well-known giant sunflower as well as many varieties of dwarf and multibranched types. Sunflowers are no longer are only yellow. They come in a wide assortment of colors, from white to rust and even several varieties of mixed shades. Watch out for the hybrid that is pollen less, because it is of little use to the bees. Salvia (Salvia/Farinacea-Strata/Splendens) The Salvia family, with more than 500 varieties, includes the sages (Salvia officinalis) and many bedding plants. The sages are good nectar providers. When in bloom, they re covered with bees all day long. The variety of colors and sizes of the Farinacea and Splendens cover the entire gambit from white, apricot, all shades of red, and purple, to blues with bicolored and tricolors. They re easily found potted in garden stores or available as from seed. Salvia officinalis is the sage herb that you can use in cooking. Bee balm (Monarda) Bee balm (Monarda didyma) is a perennial herb that provides a long-lasting display of pink, red, and crimson flowers in midsummer. They start flowering when they reach about 18 inches and continue to grow to 3 or 4 feet in height. Deadheading them encourages more growth, which can prolong their flowering period. Bee balm is susceptible to powdery mildew but the Panorama type does a good job of fending off this problem. Bee balm is a good source of nectar for bees as well as butterflies and hummingbirds. This family also includes horsemint (M. punctata), and lemon mint (M. citriodora). The fragrant leaves of most of these plants are used in herbal teas. They are easily found in seed catalogs. Several varieties usually are available at local nurseries. Hyssop (Agastache) Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) has a licorice fragrance when you bruise its leaves. It produces tall spikes of purple flowers in midsummer. Sometimes you can find a white variety of this plant. The bees happily gather nectar from it. Hyssop flowers from seed the first year that you plant it. Another common hyssop is found in the wild Agastache nepetoides. It has a light, yellowish flower and is found in wooded 1. 4

5 areas. The seed for this variety are more difficult to find, but some seed houses carry them. Mint (Mentha) Chocolate, spearmint, apple mint, peppermint, and orange mint are only a few of the types of mints available. They come in a variety of colors, sizes, fragrances, and appearances, but when they produce a flower, bees are there. Most mints bloom late in the year. Some can be easily grown by seed; other varieties you can start from roots. Mints are easily obtained because they spread readily and many gardeners are happy to share their plants. Most nurseries carry peppermint and spearmint. Cleome / Spider flower (Cleome) Spider flower (Cleome hasslerana) is heat and drought tolerant and grows well in the cold Northeast. This annual is easy to start from seed and grows more than 4 feet tall with airy flowers that are 6 to 8 inches across. It comes in white, pink, and light purple and adds an unusual flower to your garden. It s also a good producer of nectar for the bees, blooming from midsummer to fall. Thyme (Thymus) Poppy (Papaver/Eschscholzia) Danish flag (Papaver somniferum), corn poppy (P. rhoeas), and Iceland poppies (P. nudicaule) are easily grown from seed. Some are deep scarlet or crimson, but others are found in pastel shades. All bloom freely from early summer to fall, need full sun, and grow 2 to 4 feet tall. Literature claims that poppies are valuable mostly for the pollen, but bees also are gathering a fair amount of nectar. Thyme varieties are low-growing hardy herbs. Common, French, wooly, silver, and lemon are but a few of the varieties available. Several are used in cooking. In spring most nurseries have large selections. These varieties also can be started by seed at least two to three months before planting. Put plants between your stepping stones or at the edges of your garden beds. They bloom from midsummer on. Bees will cover them most of the day gathering nectar, which is aromatic and produces nice tasting honey. California poppies (Eschscholzia) are golden orange and easily grown. They are a good pollen source for honey bees. California poppies will self-seed in warmer climates. 1. 5

6 Bachelor s buttons (Centaurea) Annual and perennial selections of bachelor s buttons are available. The annuals (Centaurea cyanus, C. imperialis), found in shades of white, pink, yellow, purple, and blue, are also referred to as cornflowers. The perennial version is a shade of blue that blooms early in summer, and sometimes again in late fall. They re sometimes referred to as mountain blue but- Annual and perennial varieties produce an ample supply of nectar. They re easily and most nurseries have the annual variety available as potted plants. a tons. grown from seed Trees and shrubs were not covered in this article for this growth season. Check the pollen chart on for more ideas on which trees, shrubs and flowering plants the bees in this area like. Splitting a Hive Reasons for doing a split: To get more hives. To requeen. To get more production. To get less production (for people who don t want too many hives or too many bees). To raise queens. To prevent swarms. Timing for doing a split: As soon as commercial queens are available, or as soon as drones are flying depending on if you want to buy or raise queens you CAN do a split. It depends again on what you want for a outcome. There are an infinite variety of methods for doing a split. Many of these are because of the desired outcome (swarm prevention, maximizing yields, maximizing bees etc.) Some of the variations are also due to buying queens or letting the bees raise queens. The simple version is to make sure you have some eggs in each of the deeps and put them facing toward the old location. In other words put a bottom board on the left facing the left side of the hive and one on the right facing the right side of the hive and put one deep on each and maybe an empty deep on top of that. Put the tops on and walk away. 1. 6

7 The concepts of splits are: You have to make sure that both of the resulting colonies have a queen or the resources to make one (eggs or larvae that just hatched from the egg, drones flying, pollen and honey, plenty of nurse bees). You have to make sure that both of the resulting colonies get an adequate supply of honey and pollen to feed the brood and themselves. You have to make sure that you account for drift back to the original site and insure that both resulting colonies have enough population of bees to care for the brood and the hive they have. You need to respect the natural structure of the brood nest. In other words, brood combs belong together. Drone brood goes on the outside edge of the brood and pollen and honey go outside that. The old adage is that you can try to raise more bees or more honey. If you want both, then you can try to maximize honey in the old location and bees in the new split. Otherwise most splits are either a small nuc made up from just enough to get it started, or an even split. Kinds of splits An even split. You take half of everything and divide it up. Face both of new hives at the sides of the old hive so the returning bees aren t sure which one to come back to. In a week or so, swap places to equalize the drift to the one with the queen. A walk away split. You take a frame of eggs, two frames of emerging brood and two frames of pollen and honey and put them in a 5 frame nuc, shake in some extra nurse bees (making sure you don t get the queen), put the lid on and walk away. Come back in four weeks and see if the queen is laying. A typical split. Same as above, but you either introduce a queen you bought or walk away and let them raise their new queen. If you introduce a queen they will be three weeks ahead of the hive that is raising their own, so you will have to put them in a larger box than a nuc to start with. Swarm control split. Ideally you want to prevent swarming and not have to split. But if there are queen cells I usually put every frame with any queen cells in its own nuc with a frame of honey and let them rear a queen. This 1. 7

8 usually relieves the pressure to swarm and gives me very nice queens. But even better, put the old queen in a nuc with a frame of brood and a frame of honey and leave one frame with queen cells at the old hive to simulate a swarm. Many bees are now gone and so is the old queen. Some people do the other kinds of splits (even walk away etc.) in order to prevent swarming. I think it s better to just keep the brood nest open. A cut down split. Concepts of a cut down: The concepts of a cut down are that you free up bees to forage because they have no brood to care for, and you crowd the bees up into the supers to maximize them drawing comb and foraging. This is especially useful for comb honey production and more so for cassette comb honey production, but will produce more honey regardless of the kind of honey you wish to produce. This is very timing critical. It should be done shortly before the main honey flow. The purpose is to maximize the foraging population while minimizing swarming and crowding the bees into the supers.. There are variations on this, but basically the idea is to put almost all the open brood, honey and pollen and the queen in a new hive while leaving all the capped brood, some of the honey and a frame of eggs with the old hive with less brood boxes and more supers. The new hive won t swarm because it doesn t have a workforce (which all returns to the old hive). The old hive won t swarm because it doesn t have a queen or any open brood. It will take at least six weeks or more for them to raise a queen and get a decent brood nest going. Meantime, you still get a lot of production (probably a lot MORE production) from the old hive because they are not busy caring for brood. You get the old hive requeened and you get a split. Another variation is to leave the queen with the old hive and take ALL the open brood out. They won t swarm right away because the open brood is gone. Confining the queen. Another variation on this is to just confine the queen two weeks before the flow so there is less brood to care for and free up nurse bees to forage. This also helps with Varroa as it skips a brood cycle or two. This is a good choice if you don t want more hives and you like the queen. You can put her in a regular 1. 8

9 cage or put her in a #5 hardware cloth push in cage to limit where she can lay. They will eventually chew under the hardware cloth cage, but it should set her back for a while. Cutdown Split/Combine. This is a way to get the same number of hives, new queens and a good crop. You set up two hives right next to each other (touching would be good). Two weeks before the main flow you remove all the open brood and most of the stores from both hives, and the queen from one hive, and put it in a hive at a different location (the same yard is fine, but a different place). Then you combine all the capped brood, the other queen, or a new queen (caged), or no queen and one frame with some eggs and open brood (so they will raise a new one) into one hive in the middle of the old locations so all the returning field bees come back to the one hive