Living in tune with nature

In beekeeping, there is an important factor that the beekeeper does not control: the environment. One can plant, but has no control over winds or the vagaries of weather and climate.
The honey bee lives in symbiosis with its environment. It adapts to it, and you must do the same.
To know what should be done at a given moment, you should not refer to a calendar but rather observe the development of nature around you. Flowering periods, their advance or delay, rainfall, night-time temperatures, and so on—all these elements are essential in managing an apiary.
You are not in control of them and must adapt accordingly. After one or two seasons, you will know the sequence of flowering in your environment. If you take notes, you will be able to determine whether events are earlier or later compared with other years. After another year or two, you will define key actions as a function of flowering periods.
In short, you will look at nature through the eyes of a beekeeper.

 

Having a strong mindset

Practising beekeeping does not bring only successes. Far from it.
At the beginning, swarming or even the loss of a colony is often the cause of disappointment. It also happens that the weather does not cooperate. Many spring harvests fail because of cold conditions or drought. At first, this is discouraging. A queen that does not return from her mating flight, preventing the colony from requeening. Not to mention colony losses caused by pesticides and other bee diseases. Beekeeping sometimes requires courage to face such uncertainties. Motivation is important, but so are the desire to learn, to improve, to understand one’s mistakes and to find ways to correct them. Finally, solidarity among beekeepers also helps to overcome difficult moments and to maintain enthusiasm. Future joys are all the greater for it.

 

Calmness

A hive inspection is carried out calmly. If you are stressed or nervous, the bees will sense it. In that case, it is better to refrain and postpone the inspection until the next day. A hive inspection is prepared mentally. Think about what you are going to do and what your objectives are. Also prepare the equipment you will need. Do you need waxed frames, an additional super, a divider if you are making a split? Proper preparation of equipment ensures that the inspection is not interrupted. Knowing what you are going to do should give you confidence. Always consider hive inspections as a pleasure.

 

Patience

This is the corollary of calmness. It sometimes happens—often when starting out—that not all objectives are achieved during an inspection. This is particularly true when searching for and marking a queen.

We have all been there. Some queens, especially when they are young and not yet laying, are specialists in hide-and-seek. One must accept this and return another day. Some techniques require dexterity that one does not have at the beginning. Practice is possible, for example by marking drones before moving on to the queen.

 

A willingness to learn

Essential in beekeeping. Even if you start with a good course at a teaching apiary, you will still need to continue learning afterwards. Beekeeping evolves and requires updates and refresher learning.
First, because techniques evolve: brood interruption to control Varroa is relatively recent.
Above all, beekeeping draws on knowledge that one does not necessarily have at the outset: botany, insect biology, and so on.
To learn, the best approach is to practise beekeeping with more experienced colleagues, attend lectures and read good beekeeping books.
In this way, one day in turn, you will pass on your knowledge to less experienced beekeepers.

 

Observation

Careful observation, noticing what is abnormal—different from “usual”—and interpreting it are part of the qualities of a good beekeeper. Observation develops over time. Take time to observe before opening the hive. A great deal of information is available at the hive entrance. When opening the hive, pause for a few seconds. The way the bees move is revealing. Are they calm, nervous, busy?

For example, when you are expecting the emergence of a queen and the bees are running around in all directions, this often means there is no queen. Calmly check whether the colony has the means to requeen (young larvae or queen cells). Conversely, if the bees are calm, the queen has probably emerged. It is best to let her start laying before attempting to mark her.

 

Handy skills

There is no beekeeper without a bit of a handyman behind it. One does not need to be a professional craftsperson, even if some go as far as making their own hives.
Your inventiveness will do the rest, and your limit will be the level of your own manual skill.

 

Methodical approach

This is essential. Bees do not wait. They live in symbiosis with nature, and any delay in an intervention has immediate consequences.
It is essential to inspect your hives at the right time. The frequency of inspections depends on many factors such as weather, nectar flow, the age of the queen, the bee strain, the type of hive, and so on.
Pay close attention to the development of nature, climatic conditions and weather forecasts. “Think like a bee.” Is there nectar flow, do they have enough space, is it not too cold at night? If you fear swarming, prevent it by making an artificial swarm.
And do not forget to record what you do. Whatever the method (an Excel file, a diary or a sheet of paper under the hive roof), keep records. If things do not go as expected, you may be able to understand what happened. This is how one learns and gains experience.

 

Hygiene and care of colonies

Your bees are precious—for you and for nature. Take good care of them. First of all, by maintaining strict hygiene of the tools you use in the hives. They are easy to disinfect. Do so several times during the season. Heat from a blowtorch flame is an excellent disinfectant. Denatured alcohol (not at the same time as the blowtorch) is effective for cleaning your hive tool and dissolving propolis that may remain stuck to it. In the event of contamination of a colony, or even just suspicion, always finish with that colony. Of course, disinfect the equipment afterwards.

To maintain colony hygiene, scrape off all debris found on the top of the brood box or supers. Often propolis or even crushed bees remain there. Scrape them off with the hive tool.
It is also useful to clean the queen excluder with the hive tool to remove wax bridges between the grid and the top bars of the frames.
Finally, do not forget to clean the hive bottom board, which generally takes place on the first fine days, before the spring inspection.

 

Conclusion

That is a lot of qualities for a single beekeeper. It is often difficult to be good in all these areas. Be aware of the qualities required, try to develop those that are innate to you and acquire the others—or at least pay attention to them.

 

Based on: http://unrucheraujardin.blogspot.ch/2017/09/qualites-apiculteur.html