| Bees are now producing around 1000-2000 eggs a day as the queen bee goes into Full-On Egg laying mode. If your bees have quality sources of nectar & pollen at this point they can be at honey production levels for the FIRST HONEY Harvest in the next couple weeks!
Ensure you have spare super chambers for the bees so they have space to grow themselves through the intense blooms ahead. Remember, whenever you open the hive you break the seals the bees built to create a closed internal climate they can insulate and distracts them from foraging for nectar and pollen to create excess stores in the hive.
Ensure your beekeeping inspections and or harvesting of honey is strictly singular and efficiently planned: Every time a colony is inspected or harvested from at this time we as beekeepers disturb the colony for up to 3 foraging days following.
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Flowering Crops
~ Blue Gums ~ There are a variety of blue gums in South Africa. Not all blue gums or eucalyptus blossoms are made equal. The Blue book or Beekeeping in South Africa book includes an extensive section on floral grading of trees and plants in South Africa which focuses on blue gums. It provides the grading of the quality of both nectar and pollen quality. This is important as bees prefer high quality and high density of the top graded blossoms versus those on the lower end of scale.
The challenge with strong nectar flows is that Capensis can make its way into your colonies and begin to create a challenge for you and your Scutellata over time. Practice some restraint in the number of super chambers you add on to a single bee hive in order to decrease the opportunistic Capensis working that will be let passed the guard bees if she is carrying food. Keep your supers to 3 maximum - 2 if possible.
It means you should check for multiple eggs in brood cells especially eggs in the super chambers as signs of Capensis being present. If you have a large presence of mostly black bees in your colony and a lack of a queen bee you should consider termination of the colony before moving them from the apiary site and spreading the Capensis to another area.
~ Avocados & Litchi's ~ If you are in the Mpumalanga Province then soon the avocado and litchi bloom will start. Be sure to discuss pesticide spraying with the farmer and to avoid at all costs contact for your bees with the pesticide, despite whether the farmer tells you what the pesticide representative told him that it may be safe for bees.... It's not safe.
~ Macadamia ~ Remember, there are different cultivars of Macadamia and even if some don't require pollination they still benefit from cross pollination. There's a 12-15% increase in nut production when honeybees are used with blossoming Macadamia trees.
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~ Bees and Spring Flow-------------->
This time of year is referred to as the Spring Flow in beekeeping lingo. It's the perfect time for bees to be splitting and trekking across the country. When bees do this it makes for the best opportunity to grow your apiary using some basic items and planning!
Tools for Luring Trekking Swarms
# Lemon grass essential oil # Catch boxes & brood chambers # Nectar flow sites like sunflower, blue gum and avo # Sugar water to kickstart the new colony
Spraying a new swarm with very fine sugar water is a good way to help them recover and boost their condition after a trek! In this case, a 2:1 ratio of water to sugar can be implemented. So, 2L of water to 1kg of sugar for example. This will help the bees to recover quickly and boost their energy levels in the early days of settling in to their new home.
Note: One is not required to spray a full 2 liter bottle onto the colony all at one time... Rather to split it into 500ml sprays over 2-3 days where possible. Otherwise see next our alternatives if you aren't able to get to the bees frequently.
Entrance feeders and external feeding is a good practice to be putting to use over this period to boost new colonies after swarming. By watching them, you can get a good indication of what your bees are gathering and bringing back to the hive. Usually there will be yellow or red pollen coming back with foragers. If no pollen is noticed then it is very likely that forager was collecting nectar and or water for the colony.
If you can see pollen being brought in then it is very unlikely that they need pollen feeding or a pollen substitute. Remember although bees require pollen in their diet to keep themselves warm and feed the young larvae the important thing is that during this time all energy is usually utilised for brood boosting the colony with high priority on breeding new bees at this time.
The feeding at this point should really only be focused on new and trekking swarms that have moved into bee hives.
ALERT:> Ants can become a major risk when feeding sugar water to so make sure not to spill sugar water around or in the hive. USE NipIt nearby to your hives to keep ants away from your apiary.
P.S. We also feel it is important to inform customers that our contact details by phone line are 012 771 4288 and 012 757 5538 to speak with Vic and Shirley or contact Shirley on 083 308 0042 at the Bee WARE Centurion Shop.
Our email address is buzz@beeware.co.za at the shop.
Contact details for Bee WARE
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