Follow our progress as new beekeepers.
The bees take advantage of the days that are sunny and 50ish degrees or higher.
What are they searching for right now? Hopefully pollen from Eastern Skunk Cabbage or as us beekeepers like to rebrand it to "meadow cabbage" since it is so useful to bees right now! This will be the first to appear around swampy, wet areas. Bees love it.
I can just buy bees and a hive, right? Stick it in the backyard, put some flowers in... No - bees are complex and you need to understand them. Attending classes, even when you think you are doing good, is worth the time and money!
Today in my class, it was like an ah-ha. We took the class with our bee-mentor, Joe at Country Barn Farm.
Spring Management
When do you put another super on? Today I learned that you should over-super in Spring and under-super in Fall. So on my list of spring management for April will be to give our surviving hive(s) honey supers to work with. Maybe this will keep them focused on working on drawing out comb and not swarmy (not a technical term!) this year.
Did you catch the "for April"...? You need to know when you are getting spring flowers. Be ready for that. So if April is your flower time, then get it on for end of March.
We can take a honey super that doesn't have drawn out comb and stick it on. Let them work it for a week, check it. Are they building it out well? Great, then add another but between brood box and the super from last week. Gives them plenty to do. Skip the queen excluder at this point. Wait for them to be working it really well before adding the queen excluder.
What an ah-ha. But that happens with bees. They are so fascinating and there's so much to learn! I'll be sure to share the photos when we do this.
Let's see if this plan helps us with our remaining hive(s) and keeps us from a swarm during swarm season!
It's that time of year - get those supplies purchased and order your bees! Already we have ordered some honey making supplies. We're hoping this is the year we will be bringing in the honey!
Our current bee plan: In addition to acquiring a couple of nucs normal bee vendor, we decided to see what we thought of the Saskatraz bees. OK - think of that word. Where in the world would they be coming from...?
So it is like buying an AKC bee. They come with papers. Depending on which lineage they come from, they have a varying defense to varroa mite and increased honey production. Plus, "all families have good to excellent wintering ability in Saskatchewan, intermediate to excellent hygienic behavior and acceptable temperament."
Let me put a pause on the acceptable temperament. Yes, Chris will be getting stung. HA. They are slightly more aggressive than Italian bees.
So let's hope for great season and hope that the hives left keep going until Spring weather breaks.
Info credit: The Saskatraz Hybrid Project
Photo credit: Mann Lake
