By: David MacFawn
This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2020 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
Dr. Tom Seeley, professor at Cornell University, has made 14 suggestions to improve colony performance based on what he has found with wild colonies (see the final chapter in his book, The Lives of Bees).
These suggestions are currently being implemented in the Columbia, South Carolina, area but we have found trade-offs need to be made. This article discusses our progress to date and trade-offs made.
1. Space the colonies as widely as possible; the average number of colonies in the wild is 2.5 per square mile
The Congaree River basis is largely swamp. This makes it nearly impossible to do bee lining and determine the colony density in the area. Dr. Tom Seeley indicated, “I think wide colony spacing is for bees like clean air is for us: something that is healthful, but not essential, for survival.” In the Congaree River beeyard, two hives were placed on an eight-foot landscape timber on top of three cement blocks. The eight-foot landscape timber hive stands were spaced approximately five to ten feet apart facing different directions.
2. Use small hives consisting of one deep and one shallow; colonies will produce less honey but will be healthier
Figure 1. Rough-cut dimension eight-frame equipment. (Photo Credit: David MacFawn.)
Wild colonies average five to eight combs. The eight-frame equipment was used as a trade-off between ten frame equipment and five-frame NUCs. Five-frame NUCs take more management to keep from swarming and help survive the Winter. Also, with eight-frame equipment, the brood nest is mainly in the bottom deep box with the nest expanding up into the medium food chamber during intensive Spring brood rearing. This results in pollen storage around the brood nest in the upper food chamber. Eight-frame equipment does not have the extra space that ten-frame equipment has but is not needed.
3. Use rough-cut lumber on the inside to encourage an increase in propolis coating
Allen Johnson and Robert Abshire (johnsonsbeesupply.sc@gmail.com) in Williston, South Carolina, custom made eight-frame brood chamber deeps and medium supers out of dimension rough-cut yellow pine lumber. The dimensions of rough-cut lumber are variable, so they made sure the inside dimensions were correct for a standard eight-frame hive. This resulted in some outside variable dimensions. The equipment was glued and nailed. We replaced all the hive equipment with this rough-cut dimension lumber as of February 2020. Rough-cut equipment is its own type similar to commercial grade equipment. Solid bottom boards are used with the entrance reducer on the smallest spacing, no screened bottom boards. In the wild, trees have “infinite” wood on the top and bottom of the colony resulting in more insulation on the top and bottom than Langstroth hives. Of significant concern is heat loss through the top, so two 23/32″ Advantech tops are being used with solid board insulation between the tops. The inside roof needs to be kept warm in the Winter so the humidity coming up from the brood nest spills over to the cooler side and condenses on the sides and not the top. This will keep the moisture from raining down on the cluster in the Winter.
The inside propolis coating will be assessed after one year of equipment use. This assessment will determine what percent the inside rough surfaces are entirely covered with propolis.
4. Target diverse pollen sources for the location as much as possible
A special bee yard location was obtained along the Congaree River, across the Congaree River from Congaree National Park, outside Columbia, South Carolina. This site has a unique warm ecosystem with plentiful Tupelo Gum trees (Nyssa aquatica), American Holly (flex opaca), Sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum), Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), and a large variety of flowers.
5. Maintain 10- to 20- percent drone comb
Deep frames with a one-inch foundation starter strip at the top of the deep brood frames were used. This will result in the bees building comb with an average of 17 percent drone cells. We do have some frames with all foundation/drawn comb that are being transitioned out of the hive.
Foundation usually only has worker-size cells; in the early part of the 20th century it was thought the more workers available would result in more honey. For the most part, this has been found not to be true. In recent years the philosophy has changed to the view that healthy colonies usually produce many drones, but weak colonies usually do not produce many drones. Healthy colonies have more workers.
We will measure the drone comb amount.
6. Obtain and keep bees adapted to your location
This is done by utilizing walk-away splits located in the area/bee yard location we want the bees to adapt to. The half of the walk-away split without the original queen will raise themselves another queen that will be mated locally. If the queen is not healthy or is a poor layer, then the bees may supersede her or the beekeeper can promote this by removing the queen’s forelegs or by actually removing the queen. If the queen is removed, a concern is that there are enough workers available to get through the queen transition. Raising and mating queens in the area you want your colonies adapted to will also work.
7. Keep the nest structure intact; the original frame location in the hive and the original frame orientation; do not reverse boxes
Most beekeepers today need to keep the original frame location in the hive and original frame orientation. It is important not to reverse boxes. The brood nest should not be split in cold weather by reversing the boxes. Usually, the queen will go down into the lower region of the hive on her own.
8. Use 2-inch bottom opening: no top entrance
This is easy to do by always using the 2-inch orientation of the entrance reducer. In the wild, there is “infinite” insulation on the top and bottom of the colony. This results in condensation occurring on the frame bottoms and not at the top of the hive. Water/ moisture in the Winter is used by the bees rather than having to forage for water in the Winter, or water condensing on the hive top and “raining” down on the colony, chilling the colony in hives with poor top insulation. The hive top will be insulated such that the inside bottom of the cover is warm and the moist air condenses on the hive sides or frame bottoms.
9. Allow condensation during the Winter in hives. This is the Winter water source for the bees
See #8 for an explanation of condensation as a water source for bees in Winter.
10. Do not disturb the colonies in the Winter–no feeding syrup or pollen
By feeding syrup or pollen, a false nectar or pollen flow is created. This makes the bees adapt to this false flow, resulting in the bees consuming more stores, out of sync with nature, and the local environment. If the colony is light in the Fall, then Fall feeding can be done.
11. Refrain from treating for Varroa; if the level gets greater than 15 mites per 300 bees, euthanize the colony with warm soapy water; eliminate nonresistant colonies and avoid mite bombs
The nectar flow typically starts April 1 in the Columbia, South Carolina, area. We split the end of February at the earliest. If we split the end of February, it means first workers from the queenless split emerge mid-April, with the first foragers typically three weeks later or the first part of April. The flow is over usually the first week in June.
At the end of February 2020, I split all the Congaree colonies (except one) that had at least a full brood chamber and medium food chamber full of bees and brood. There were enough bees to cover all the brood in both split halves for the cool weather we were going to have for the next week (lows night in the mid-30s F.). I therefore did individual walk-away splits and did not do over/under splits as I originally planned. There are now nine colonies/splits in the Congaree bee yard. I divided the brood/honey/pollen equally between the splits and made sure there were eggs/young larvae in both splits so I did not worry which split had the queen.
By feeding in the midstate area of South Carolina from the end of February, when some splits are made, until the nectar flow around the first of April, I am violating the no-feeding syrup recommendation. By feeding syrup, I am implementing another false nectar flow, but this is necessary to keep the bees alive. I suspect if I did not feed from the end of February to around April 1 the bees would adapt and start swarming around the first of April. The first year I plan to feed 1:1 syrup until the nectar flow starts the end of March/first of April. After the walk-away split queens have mated locally the first year, the colonies will not be fed the second year. We can treat the high-mite colonies with Mite Away Quick Strips (MAQS) and requeen rather than euthanize. However, note that treating may interrupt the bee gut microbes. The colonies with high Varroa mite loads will be moved to a nursery yard.
Monitoring Varroa mite levels and treating if necessary is especially important beginning the end of May through November in South Carolina. Mite levels should be monitored at least monthly, if not bi-monthly.
Progress has been made in implementing Dr. Tom Seeley’s Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA). Some tough decisions need to be made such as feeding and reversing boxes. Colonies that are not adapted will be lost, but splits and queens raised in the local environment will quickly ensure the bees are adapted to the local environment. Consideration initially may be made to feed splits but to allow open mating in the local environment which will help ensure the queens adapt to colonies surviving locally.
We need to consider being able to find an isolated nurse yard to move issue colonies to. I am not sure that some colonies can sustain a higher mite load then others, so there is the issue of mites contaminating other colonies if I do not euthanize them. Also, by using Mite Away Quick Strips (MAQS), I am impacting both good and bad gut bacteria which may be an issue.
It seems most beekeepers trying treatment-free beekeeping only have their colonies last two to three years. We will see how this beeyard in the Congaree Park area survives; yes, I am doing a calculated gamble.
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Dr. Tom Seeley’s Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA) and the Valentine Hive, Bee Culture, David E. MacFawn, November 2019
Deep Forest Bee Hunting Robin Radcliffe and Tom Seeley. American Bee Journal, Volume 158, No. 8, August 2018
