October at the apiary

October, the month of winter preparation

Autumn is the period of active preparation for wintering, both on the part of the bees and of the beekeeper, who is concerned about the well-being of the colonies.

A first treatment was carried out after the harvest, in the absence of honey supers, using formic acid or strips. A second treatment was administered at the beginning of September. Varroa drop was counted and does not exceed 1 per day. The objective is to overwinter colonies with fewer than 50 varroa mites per hive.

 

Important: the quality of the current bee population determines the coming season in both health and productivity terms. It is therefore logical that the beekeeper pays close attention to:

• food reserves. The honey stored in the brood chamber has not been extracted, and feeding between the harvest of the supers and the end of September will have provided around 15 kg of 75% syrup. Reserves should amount to about 15–20 kg for a colony on 12 frames, corresponding to a total hive weight of around 40 kg. As cold weather sets in, a cluster forms to keep the brood and the queen warm. Paradoxically, the stronger the colony or the larger the cluster, the less food the bees consume to maintain the temperature at the center of the sphere. A colony with very limited food reserves or a very small population has little chance of surviving the winter. It is too late to feed or to unite colonies. The problematic hive will be moved a few meters on a sunny day; after generous smoking so that the bees gorge themselves on honey, the frames will be shaken out. The bees will be accepted by neighboring hives; the queen, pinned to the ground, is doomed...
• protection against cold and moisture. The inner covers are fitted with insulation, and if there is no varroa floor, the hive is slightly tilted forward to facilitate the drainage of condensation water. The beekeeper will also have reduced the number of frames to insert one or two dummy boards, thereby improving colony ventilation.
• protection of hive entrances. Entrance reducers are fitted to prevent robbing and the intrusion of wasps and mice.

Replacing queens

This could have been done as early as August, but the later the operation is carried out, the less time the bees have to establish a successful requeening. Acceptance of a new queen is never guaranteed, especially if the genetic lines of the new and old queens are very different. If acceptance occurs, winter provides favorable conditions for good homogenization of the colony, and the new queen’s laying will gradually replace the population with her offspring. This is a delicate operation that is never successful in 100% of cases.

At the outset, the queen of the colony to be renewed must absolutely be found and removed. Within the following hour, the new queen should be introduced. The most reliable method is to use an introduction cage that occupies a full frame. The idea is to keep the queen on a frame of emerging brood; young bees will feed her, lick her, and exchange pheromones. This unit is placed in the hive and occupies the space of three frames, which requires that there be no frame lugs at the bottom of the brood box. The colony’s bees exchange food and pheromones through the fine mesh, and acceptance takes place. After 48 hours, the cage is removed. Easier to implement is the use, on the same principle, of the Nicot introduction cage, which creates a space 11 mm high with a surface area of 148 × 130 mm. This plastic mesh allows exchanges between the colony’s bees and the queen. Placed on a patch of emerging brood, the queen moves around alone until bees begin to emerge. This new retinue will feed and protect her upon her release, usually within about 48 hours. A queen introduced within at most two hours after leaving her original hive is almost always accepted.

Reducing colony space

Beekeeping requires constant adjustment of hive volume to match colony size. What matters is that the bees are always kept in a compact and warm space. Remove empty frames or those with too little honey, and place insulating dummy boards on either side of the last honey frames. These insulating boards should preferably be covered with aluminized insulation to reflect the infrared radiation produced by the cluster; this accelerates the resumption of activity in January and thus increases the surface of the queen’s brood area.