The double hives

I work with divisible Dadant double hives with 12 frames according to the method of the first president of ANERCEA, Charles Goetz, using a central divider. In winter, the double hives are stacked with three supers, allowing the colonies to warm each other. In spring, I remove the empty lower super; the central divider then separates the winter brood sphere into two parts. I swap the two remaining supers (see diagram 1). The space between the two brood nests is quickly laid up, which accelerates colony development. When one colony is strong and the neighbouring one is medium, simply swapping their positions balances their strength, as the foragers remain on the same side. During summer migratory beekeeping, I place a queen excluder above the second super and add two or three shared supers without a central divider for honey storage. The queen is confined to a restricted area, resulting in reduced brood and more foragers that have expended less energy on brood rearing. In summary, management with divisible hives allows much finer control but requires more time.

My stock consists of:

• 50 production double hives (Carnica F1 with 1- and/or 2-year-old queens),
• 3 breeding double hives (starter/finisher),
• 12 hives with selected pure Carnica queens

Breeding hives

 

For breeding, I work with “double hives” that include a queenless compartment (see diagram 2). They are designed as follows: on a bottom board, two supers are placed, each with 12 frames and a central divider that is bee-tight along the sides and against the bottom. Between the first and second supers, there are two half queen excluders, creating four compartments of six super frames each.

 The queen is confined in one of the two lower compartments; the other half of the hive is queenless, with the starter section above. On the queenless side, a queen excluder prevents a returning, newly mated queen from entering the queenless colony, where she would otherwise interfere with acceptance of the queen cells. A third super is placed on top for storing provisions. Frame rotation is carried out weekly as follows: – right side (queen side): larval frames without the queen from the first super are moved to the second super; – right side: brood frames from the second super are transferred to the left side of the second super; – left side (queenless): sealed brood frames from the second super are moved down to the first super on the left; – left side: empty frames from the first super replace the frames in the first super on the right. In this way, the queen always has space to lay eggs, and on the queenless side there is always emerging brood. These frame transfers are carried out with the bees present. They are sprayed with lactic acid to prevent varroa proliferation. No new queen cells are started because on the finisher side the queen pheromone prevents this, and on the starter side only larvae that are too old are present. The breeding frame in the Dadant super consists of two sets of two metal rods salvaged from old queen excluders (see photo 2). On two bars of a breeding frame, I place 38 cell cups. I trim the edges of the cup holders to reduce their width (see photo 3), leaving less space between two cups and thus approximating the natural brood pattern. The cup holders have distinguishing marks (1, 2, 3 holes, etc. – see photo 3), allowing me to create series. I record the series, the grafting date, and the mother queen. By simply looking at the cup holder, I have all the information I need for the new queen, with minimal written records.

Breeding

The mother lines are queens at least two years old, of the Carnica strain, mated at a mating station and selected over one production season and two winters. From the third year onward, the mother colonies are maintained as nuclei to avoid exhausting the queens. My wife grafts the larvae using a Chinese grafting tool. The breeding frame is introduced into the second super on the left, queenless side (starter). Fondant is placed on the cells to promote larval acceptance. After 24 hours, the breeding frame is transferred to the right side above the queen (finisher). The cells remain in the finisher for only five days, with little wax built between the cells. Five days later, when the cells are sealed, I transfer them to a Swienty incubator. This incubator has been modified by adding wire barriers (wire stretched between two nails) that form corridors, thus preventing a domino effect if a roller cage falls (see photo 4).

A cell falling can be fatal. The capacity of the incubator has been increased, along with improved handling safety. It may happen that a queen emerges as early as day 11; she would survive only a few hours if the precaution of placing some fondant at the bottom of the roller cage had not been taken. On day 11, the cells are introduced into Apidéa-type nuclei. Egg-laying is checked after ten days. The queens are shipped by post, priority mail, from day 20 onwards. In Switzerland, for 1 €, mail deposited at the counter before 6 p.m. is delivered the next morning to the beekeeper’s mailbox. Delays are very rare and usually only occur due to sender error. It is important to post items at the counter, as postal staff separate manually sorted from mechanically sorted mail. I include an explanatory leaflet with the queens for their introduction.

Photo 5 shows an Apidéa nucleus in winter configuration, with a small super and a feeder (a total of ten mini-frames). This allows some queens to be overwintered and the nuclei to be divided in spring to repopulate the entire stock.

Stock renewal

Formation of spring nuclei: To rejuvenate the stock, all colonies that will not go on summer migration or are not assigned to breeding are converted into nuclei during May. These consist of three Dadant super frames with a cage containing a laying queen without attendant bees. This is followed by colony expansion and feeding between May and mid-July. If the queen proves satisfactory (after two months her quality can already be assessed), this nucleus, then occupying six super frames, is united with a queenless production colony. A sheet of paper between the two colonies allows for a gentle uniting. The advantage of spring nuclei is that inferior colonies are not overwintered. Moreover, May queens may be better than queens from other months, as they are produced in accordance with the bee’s biological calendar. Formation of summer nuclei. In mid-July, the supers must be removed, feeding carried out, and varroa treatment applied. Hoping for an August honey flow would risk colony loss, as varroa begins to proliferate very rapidly at that time, weakening winter bees. The bees from the supers are surplus and will soon perish. I use these bees to form shaken swarms and give them a new life. Instead of installing a bee escape and removing the supers, I brush 1.8 kg of these bees into a hive with ten foundation frames (or five brood frames). As the bees are quickly confined, there is no particular agitation in the apiary (I work most of the time without protective clothing). It is sufficient to treat against varroa (35 ml of 3.5 % oxalic acid by trickling), feed, and introduce a queen (acceptance rate 99.9 %). One month later, after adding two frames (or one brood frame) and adequate feeding, the nuclei are ready to overwinter with low varroa levels. These nuclei will be used to compensate winter losses or will be sold.