Review of Russian Bee Package on Drawn Comb

By : Beak Ruzicka

PACKAGES, NUCS, SPLITS, AND SWARMS were created for traditional northern beekeeping when the bees were gassed and killed after the outset frost in late August or early September. All of the honey was extracted and the combs were sorted and prepared for spring packages bought from California. This practice was all based on having fully fatigued comb not using foundation.

NEW BEES: Someone forgot to tell you lot that packages, splits, nucs, and swarms in dry out areas demand to be placed in fully fatigued rummage. The bees volition not continue to draw out foundation when the honey menses ends in mid July. You should be buying bees on fully drawn combs to exist successful. (Run across lesson half dozen) It takes an astonishing 7 to eight lbs of honey to create 1 lb of wax.

BUYERS AND SELLERS: Make certain the donor colonies are treated a month before sales with low dose continuous release formic acrid handling by MiteGone. It not but cleans the donor hive from both mites just too prevents reinfestation.

ARTIFICIAL SWARMS are the all-time way to supplant any bees that you lost or every bit a style to increment the amount of hives y'all accept. A full size colony will produce a full or better ingather in the summer when placed into Drawn DEEP Rummage WITH STORES. This process of bogus swarms eliminates the transfer of diseases like AFB. You lot are getting an established over-wintered laying queen and bees.

There is no transfer of equipment, but bees. The queen is laying 2000 eggs a day and volition not stop. She must be transferred onto squeamish make clean drawn comb to continue to lay and within three days she will have laid three frames of brood. I will explicate how it is all done in lesson 5, a department called Bogus SWARMS.

In the late 70s, I bought a 100 hive outfit and went through all the normal sources of acquiring bees. The operation had only 20 alive colonies and a lot of old equipment of various sizes. Imagine that each bottom lath had its own entrance reducer; all reducers were a different length. You lot simply sat in front of each hive and tried them until one fit. This type of beekeeping did not mesh with my upbringing and education. Therefore, over the Summer and Winter I sorted everything and standardized and fixed what was usable. On the advice from Leo Fuhr, I requeened all twenty colonies and ensured they were well fed and stocked for winter to ensure that I would exist able to do a lot of splits in the jump.

Lesson ane – Splits and Hive Arrangements

I wintered all 20 colonies in two rows side to side and back to dorsum. Each colony was two supers loftier and I winterized all the hives everything in one gigantic Winter wrap of insulation and black paper. This arrangement taught me a lesson in drifting.

In the Jump, the stop hives were booming and the center hives were very weak needing a lot of boosting. Therefore in the Leap, we inverse the hive configuration into groups of 4 arranged in a circle to prevent drifting, like in a higher place. By late May we were able to split them into 50 honey producing hives.

Lesson Learned: I adjusted this model to all my yards as information technology eliminates drifting.

Lesson 2 – Packages and Equipment –

This was in the belatedly 70s when packages were typical in northern apiculture in Canada and U.S. Everybody in the north later first frost in late August gassed their bees, extracted all the honey and sorted their equipment to receive packages in Bound. Each yr Ernie Fuhr took his truck in late March and went to California to buy 2500 packages. 2000 for him and 500 to sell. He ever stopped at his parent'south place in Vernon. That is where I got my first 50 packages and installed them on well prepared boxes with drawn comb and gallon feeders full of feed on top. They took off nicely and produced honey.

Winter insulation.

Therefore, I decided to do the same thing the following year but I did not have enough drawn comb. I did have a lot of new foundation that I had made over the Wintertime. I fed the hives the same way as I had done in the past and then relied on honey menstruum for the hives to build. By mid August, the hives should have been booming but instead the bees confined themselves to the four to five drawn frames I had given them. That is when I learned that it takes seven lbs of honey to create one lb of wax. Doing a lot of feeding from mid-Baronial until the end of September brought them upwards to six to 8 frames of bees. I created an inner feeder and set these small hives on top of my stronger two loftier colonies for the Winter. I packed them in 4 packs fabricated of plywood and 1" corolite walls and three½" fi berglass insulation in plastic bags on top to Winter. I learned how to Winter minor colonies and how much information technology cost to draw foundation.

Lesson Learned: Do non put the packages on foundation only unless Yous provide enough of heavy feed. 64% Heavy feed doesn't crystallize or ferment.

Heavy syrup is xvi kg sugar into 20 liters of finished syrup (not into xx liters of water) or 35 lbs of sugar into 10 ½ US gallons of finished syrup (not into 10½ U.Due south. gallons of water). To mix heavy syrup, mark (draw a line) on a large mixing container at 20 liters or 10½ gallons. Fill this container to about one-half with hot water and and so add the measured sugar mixing equally you lot add. And then tiptop off the mixture with hot water to your mark (line).

Lesson three – Nucs

I did my share of nucing when I was reducing my operation from 500 hives to 280. It was a overnice way to sell surplus equipment. Simply in the belatedly 80s when the get-go mites came and borders were closed, the BC bee breeding industry started to course. In my accounting mind, I could not justify making and selling nucs. Why?

In the Fundamental Okanagan, in the bush-league on non-irrigated lands, to make and draw a perfect brood frame, cost me at that time, $10. Therefore four frames would cost $40. Selling nukes at that time for $45 did non make much sense to me. Every bit a issue, I developed the do of selling bogus swarms. We will render to them in lesson 5.

But now dorsum to nucs. If yous are only starting with all new equipment and foundation, in areas with honey menstruum throughout the Summer, y'all forfeit any honey product and need to exist prepared to provide the bees enough of 64% heavy feed. Side by side yous have to find a reliable source of bees. Talk to beekeepers and enquire many questions. Do non buy a 4-frame nuc on anything other than deep frames.

NUCS: Iii FRAMES IN APRIL OR Four FRAMES IN LATE MAY.

A-Indisputably the best are nucs made later on pollination from over-wintered hives with queens reared in June the previous year. With proper feeding or a reliable honey flow they will draw foundation and produce dearest for Winter.

B-Nucs With New Queens are quite common and piece of work; however, they are a piffling slower in their development every bit young queens may require more fourth dimension to swing into total production. Some queens may neglect, but those who survive the Summertime and are full size colonies in August, with proper treatments, like Formic, sufficient Winter stores, and Winter packing, volition be skilful for the following year.

C- Nucs With Early Mated Queens are too common but may be desperately mated. The reason for this is that there are not enough mature drones in April or early May. I tried for several years to run 2-queen colonies. I would create actress units on top of the standard hive. Only in the first year did I have 140 mated queens out of 200 by mid May. This phenomenon never happened over again and some queens ran out of sperm and became drone layers. This may happen in both B & C options. E'er ask your supplier if he will replace queens if they neglect by mid July.

D- Nucs By Mid July Are Called Splits. They are normally well developed units with reliable Queens. They will build up to stiff winter colonies and produce honey well in the next two years. They will require re-queening in the second summer by proven queens reared in June.

Lesson 4 – Natural SWARMS

These are a great way to increase your numbers. And YES, the SWARM volition do what all swarms do, build a new home and describe out comb. You simply take to provide plenty of 64% heavy feed

The Queen has prepared herself for the swarm flying past reducing the amount of eggs she lays for several days until she stops entirely. She can wait until her worker bees build a new house with fully fatigued rummage to start laying again. On the day of swarming, the bees have gorged themselves on dearest and then on a overnice afternoon they are off to observe new home. Whatever three cubic feet of space volition practise for the bees. This can be a chimney, under stairs, an old motorcar, or box. How to catch them will be some other lesson. What I have described above does non happen with Artificial Swarms.

LESSON 5 – ARTIFICIAL SWARMS

Bogus swarms are a better mode to replace bees you lost or equally a way to increase your numbers. You are getting a total size colony which will produce a full honey ingather in the summer when installed into DRAWN DEEP COMB WITH STORES. This process eliminates the transfer of diseases like AFB. It has an over wintered queen with bees. At that place is no transfer of equipment, only bees.

The queen is laying 2000 eggs a 24-hour interval and will not end. She must exist transferred onto a nice clean fatigued rummage to continue lay. Within 3 days she will have laid three frames of brood and have five frames of bees. They will brand the remaining 10 combs set up for her. This way you can start your apiculture in belatedly May, when there is a dearest flow. Within seven days later on y'all pick up your swarm, you will need to add 2d box.

Attention: The difference between the bogus swarm and an bodily swarm is that neither the bees nor the queen has time to set for swarming. The bees do not gorge themselves on love. The queen is laying eggs at a rate of 2000 a mean solar day. That's near 1 egg every 43 seconds. It will damage the queen if she does non have squeamish cells in which to lay eggs. On the other mitt, if you lot give her quality combs you will have three frames of brood in three days. The hive will also demand a lot of food at this point. You lot need to provide enough of 64% heavy feed.

HOW WE Exercise IT

Kickoff, nosotros work with our customers to prepare the SWARM box correctly. Swarms can be put into any sized equipment only inner feeders fi t merely in deep boxes.

In the motion-picture show, y'all tin can see my ii frame feeder with a capacity of four liters. These feeders are 40 years old and fabricated of forest. This feeder tin also be moved into the center of the box and separate the hive into two mating nucs. Now you can hands buy 2 frame plastic feeders. Put one such feeder against the side of the box. Then 2 outside combs (the one side by side to the feeder and the 1 side by side to the outside wall) should exist beloved combs. Next to them should be a frame of pollen each. That leaves you with space in centre of the box for four of your nicest frames that are ready to receive eggs and bees. The ameliorate you lot set up this box, the amend results you will take.

Checking for queens.

The bottom board is attached to the swarm box so the unit tin exist carried around without it coming apart. The total size archway must take a full size screen that is easily removable and installable.

The pinnacle of swarm box is covered with carpet or a potato sack and a telescoping height cover and then information technology can exist bee sealed for transport to the customer'due south destination.

In April when nosotros prepare two loftier hives for pollination standards nosotros treated them with Oxalic. When they are back nosotros put on Queen Excluder and brown dear box to terminate them from natural swarming.

On a overnice mean solar day in late May we remove our hive from where it is placed in the beeyard and put the prepared customer's box in its place and open up the screen. We discover the queen and transfer it with all the bees onto customer'south rummage into the customer'due south box. We shake 60% of the bees from all of the combs into the customer'south box. In addition, the entire field force volition return to the client'south box past the end of the day. All of the combs that were shaken are placed on different hive to incubate. Nosotros usually stacked three hives worth of brood onto a fourth to incubate. Three days later, we check all of the customer's swarms for a queen and eggs. Then one evening, the hives are loaded for transport.

Incubators.

All that is left backside are tall (five to vi boxes high) incubators with chocolate-brown honey boxes on pinnacle. Nosotros extract those and their dandelion honey afterwards second shake so it does non crystallize in comb.

Ten days after the incubators were made they are shaken to produce a 2d circular of swarms. These incubators are very strong colonies and in add-on to making a 2nd swarm, multiple iii frame nucs are made from the residual breed and bees. These nucs receive a queen prison cell, mate Queens, and spend the Summer growing into next twelvemonth'south colonies to pollinate and sell. Whole procedure starts once again.

Functioning AND HISTORY

In 1988 we ran a 10 swarms test. In 1989, 100 swarms went to the Peace River expanse averaging seven pounds of bees each and they did keen. In 1990, John Gates from the BC Apiculture Programme ran tests and found Bogus Swarms a very workable organisation. The method was originally published in BeesCene in April 1991 and republished in 2013.

From 1991 to 1997 we produced 450-500 swarms each yr for a variety of buyers. Almost buyers wanted truck load quantities lxxx-150 or 200-250 for v ton trucks. Simply in 1995 did we accept a larger lodge 500. The customer had a class eight truck and semitrailer. It took the whole night to movement his double lesser equipment from all the yards to the loading dock. And so a fork elevator loaded the hives onto the trailer. It was iv:00 am and day calorie-free when this massive load left. I vowed that I would never practise that again! Depending on year, the artificial swarms had on average 7.4-eight.7 frames of bees and 2.9- 3.7 frames of brood three days after shaking.

In 1981 I decided to reduce my performance and sell the equipment in the form of four frame nucs. When I got down to 280 hives, we exchanged frames for many years with the PHILPOTS in Alberta and made 450 – 4 frame nukes into their prepared boxes.

In 2013, I reduced my operation further to 72 single colonies over wintered for pollination. With increasing issues with AFB, we were back to the method of Artificial Swarms which eliminates AFB transfer.

LESSON six – RETIRING AND SELLING Full SIZE COLONIES

In 2018, at the age of 78, because of health reasons, I decided to sell my remaining 82 hives and performance in bits and pieces including the contracts. To those who are in same boat, I recommend it. Selling whole size colonies worked extremely well, and led to the creation of a . . .

. . . BEE BREEDER'S CIRCLE.

This group of local beekeepers volition go along our local Vernon stock alive. Nosotros actually recreated the local Vernon stock improvement program where 20 of the best hives of the descendants of Vernon stock are brought into a breeding circle to produce 9 queen cell builders and provide 18 graft combs of different mothers to produce future generations. I will mentor this group and have bees in my beeyard in Summertime to play with.

For the benefit of the buyer and the seller I will do a cost benefit assay of buying nucs and foundation confronting full size colony and income from it against selling the whole operation in 2018 prices. You can be the judge of what deal is better.

Total SIZE COLONY that will produce honey – $400.00

Includes a standard deep box, meridian cover, bottom board, ten fully fatigued combs (including honey, pollen and approximately six combs of brood in various stages of development), our local Vernon stock bees, and an over-wintered mated Vernon stock queen.

Buying full size colonies you have the choice of second box of foundation or drawn comb.

If you are in an area with arable beloved flow over whole Summer, then you can use your new equipment with foundation, and forfeit honey production for drawing rummage and feed the hive if required. In semi barren areas with limited honey menstruation I recommend purchasing used equipment and fully drawn comb.

Beekeepers who bought fatigued second box had sizable honey crop for the beekeeper.

Boilerplate in wetter parts was 90 lbs in dry areas 50 lbs. You forfeit this for cartoon foundation.

Box of drawn comb – used for expansion and wintering. $100.00

Includes a standard deep box, eight fully drawn frames two with food, and a two-frame four-liter feeder/ divider/comb dearest producer with rummage honey sections.

The dearest comb producing arrangement in the feeder eliminates the need to have the feeders out for Summer and stops bees from filling feeders with burr comb. Instead of burr comb you get rummage beloved.

The picture show illustrates. On left is the box with starter wax put in the feeder in the Spring when the feeder is empty of feed. On the right, is a finished rummage section taken out earlier the first feed in late August. This organisation can also be adapted to plastic two frame feeders

Metal Queen Excluders: boil washed $10.00

Extracting Supers: Fully fatigued and wet from dear $ 45.00

Never used for brood. Ordinarily ii extracting supers are required per colony.

Cost to buyer or income to seller for complete package $600.00

Price of new equipment and nuke. $450.00

Add together Shipping and you forfitted 50-90 pounds of honey local price?

Four-frame Nuc $225.00.

Average cost for whatever size new box with assembled frames and plastic foundation is $65.00 you need two deep for brood and two ediums for dearest $230.00

Add 2-frame feeder $25.00

Queen excluder metallic $10.00

Bottom board $fifteen top cover metallic insulated $45 $60.00

Yous be the Guess.

COURSES:

You can accept my course; TO BE OR Not TO Exist A BEEKEEPER, THAT'S THE QUESTION?

It costs $30 and is washed on-line and on the telephone. It will lead you through the do'south and don'ts of beekeeping earlier you lot spend thousands of dollars merely observe out you don't accept the power or don't want to be a apiculturist. Information technology will probably exist the wisest money you ever spent.

Higher OR COMMUNITY COURSES may non be a wise decision. Anyone tin can decide to put on courses in beekeeping. They may or may non take whatsoever credentials. So ask who he/she is and if that person has certification as a beginner instructor by the BC Beloved Producers or your State / Provincial Clan. I participated with Lance Cuthill in the cosmos of this designation. It may not be the best in the world but it ensures that teachers are qualified, wrong ideas are not taught, or personal profit achieved from the auction of bad nucs and queens.

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Source: https://www.beeculture.com/31377-2/

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