Living in harmony with nature

In beekeeping, there is one important factor the beekeeper cannot control: the environment. You can plant, but you have no influence over the winds or the vagaries of weather and climate.
The bee lives in symbiosis with its environment. It adapts to it, and you must do the same.
To know what needs to be done at any given moment, you should not consult a calendar but rather observe how nature is evolving around you. The flowering plants, whether they are ahead or behind schedule, rainfall, night-time temperatures — all these elements are essential in colony management.
You have no control over them and must adapt accordingly. After one or two seasons, you will know the flowering sequence of your local environment. If you take notes, you will be able to gauge how far ahead or behind each year is compared to previous ones. After another year or two, you will be able to determine the key actions in relation to the flowering periods.
In short, you will look at nature through the eyes of a beekeeper.

Maintaining strong morale

When practising beekeeping, success is far from guaranteed.
In the early days, it is often the swarming impulse, or even the loss of a colony, that causes disappointment. The weather may also fail to cooperate. Many spring harvests are lost due to cold or drought. At the beginning, this can be discouraging. A queen that does not return from her mating flight and thereby prevents the colony from requeening. Not to mention colony losses caused by pesticides and other bee diseases. Beekeeping requires courage at times to cope with setbacks. Motivation matters, but so does the thirst to learn, to improve, to understand one's mistakes and find ways to remedy them — these are the factors that lead to success. And the solidarity among beekeepers also helps to overcome difficult moments and keep one's enthusiasm alive. The future joys are all the greater for it.

Calm

A colony inspection is carried out in a calm state of mind. 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 following day. A colony inspection requires mental preparation. Think about what you are going to do and what your objectives are. Also prepare the equipment you will need. Do you need frames fitted with foundation, a super to add, a division board if you are making a split? Thorough preparation ensures you will not have to interrupt the inspection. Knowing what you are going to do should give you confidence. Always approach a colony inspection as a pleasure.

Patience

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

We have all been there. Some queens, especially when they are young and not yet laying, are specialists at hide-and-seek. You have to accept this and come back another day. Some techniques require a dexterity that one does not have from the outset. You can practise — for example by marking drones before moving on to the queen.

The desire to learn

This is indispensable in beekeeping. Even if you begin with a good course at a teaching apiary, there is still much to learn afterwards. Beekeeping evolves and requires ongoing revision and updating.
Firstly, because techniques develop: the brood break to combat varroa is a more recent method.
And above all, beekeeping draws on knowledge one does not necessarily have at the outset: botany, insect biology…
The best way to learn is to practise beekeeping alongside more experienced colleagues, to attend lectures and to read good beekeeping books.
In this way, you will one day in turn pass on what you have learned to less experienced beekeepers.

Observation

Observing carefully, noticing what is abnormal — different from "usual" — and interpreting correctly are all qualities of a good beekeeper. The ability to observe develops over time. Take time to watch before starting the inspection. A great deal of information is available at the hive entrance. When you open the hive, pause for a few seconds. The way the bees move is revealing. Are they calm, agitated, busy?

For example, when you are waiting for a queen to emerge, if the bees are running in all directions this often means there is no queen. Calmly check that the colony has the means to requeen (young larvae or queen cells). Conversely, if the bees are calm, the queen has in all likelihood emerged. The best course is probably to let her begin laying before attempting to mark her.

Practical aptitude

There is no beekeeper without a practical side lurking within. One need not be a professional handyman, even if some will go as far as building their own hives.
Your ingenuity will do the rest, and your only limit will be your level of skill.

Methodical approach

This is indispensable. Bees do not wait. They live in symbiosis with nature, and any delay in an intervention comes at an immediate cost.
It is essential to inspect your hives with purpose. The frequency of inspections depends on multiple factors such as the weather, the nectar flow, the age of the queen, the bee race, the hive type…
Pay particular attention to the evolution of nature, weather conditions and forecasts. "Think like a bee." Is the nectar flow on, do the bees have enough space, is it not too cold at night? If you suspect swarming, pre-empt it by making an artificial swarm.
And do not forget to record what you do. Whatever the method — a spreadsheet, 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. That is how one learns and gains experience.

Hygiene and colony care

Your bees are precious. To you, but also to nature. Take care of them. Above all by maintaining strict hygiene with the tools you use in the hives. They are easy to disinfect — do so several times each season. Heat from a blowtorch flame is an excellent disinfectant. Methylated spirits (not at the same time as the blowtorch) are effective for wiping down your hive tool and dissolving any propolis adhering to it. In the event of contamination of a colony, or even mere suspicion, always finish with that colony. Then disinfect the equipment afterwards, of course.

To maintain colony hygiene, scrape off all debris found on top of the brood box or supers. Propolis or even crushed bees frequently accumulate there. Scrape with the hive tool.
It is useful to clean the queen excluder with the hive tool to remove brace comb between the excluder and the tops of the frames.
Do not forget the cleaning of the floor insert either, which generally takes place on the first fine days of the year, before the spring inspection.

Conclusion

That is a great many qualities for a single beekeeper. It is often difficult to excel in each of these areas. Be aware of the qualities required, try to develop those that come naturally to you, and acquire the others — or at least remain mindful of them.

 

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

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See also:

• The qualities of a good beekeeper
• Practical Guide: 4.8.1 Entrance observation
• Practical Guide: 4.1 Hygiene
• How to become a beekeeper?