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Richard Wahl began learning beekeeping the hard way starting in 2010 with no mentor or club association and a swarm catch. He is now a self-sustainable hobby beekeeper since 2018, writing articles, giving lectures and teaching beginning honey bee husbandry and hive management.
Off the Wahl Beekeeping
New(ish) Beekeeper Column
Second Year Beekeeping Adjustments
By: Richard Wahl
Changes from First Year Basics
There is much guidance that can be found about getting started with beekeeping in both written and video formats. Sources will provide the basic equipment needs, where to obtain bees or starter nucleus hives (nucs)and the approximation of costs. There is also a wealth of advice, often in a more generalized fashion, as to the need for mite testing and treatment, a variety of seasonal feeding options and the general care and husbandry of the beehive. It is a bit more difficult to find specific particulars about how things will change and what to look for in the second year of beekeeping. In this article I will cover a number of points as to how the second year of beekeeping husbandry differs from the first year of hive management. The basic assumption is that the first year beekeeper’s hive has survived the Winter and the hive has a robust queen and ample supply of worker bees going into the second season.
There are many cases where the beginning beekeeper has lost a hive over Winter and is then in their second year of beekeeping. A hive that has not survived the Winter forces the beekeeper to purchase a new package or nuc of bees and is putting the beekeeper back in their first year as far as the hive and bee care is concerned. This could also be stated about any Summer swarm catch or a split off nuc in its first year. Any of those situations mean that a second year hive will have different needs and management requirements than a first year hive. Likewise, it is a common practice to not take any honey from a first year hive. This is largely due to the first year hive needing to draw out new comb as well as forage for nectar to build a supply of resources to take care of the new brood. If previously used drawn comb is available then there is the possibility of collecting some honey from the first year hive. Only after a hive has overwintered and raised a sufficient bee population of foragers will there be an excess of honey for the beekeeper.
First Time Inspection in a Second Year Hive
The eagerness to get into a hive in Spring to see what is going on is much like the anticipation to open presents at Christmas. But just like Christmas it is best to hold off. Any full inspection until the dandelions are in full bloom is well worth the wait. This will happen well after the maples pop open, which is normally the first significant pollen source here in SE Michigan and occurs about a month before the dandelions. Hive inspections fall into two categories. There is the simple opening of the hive to check on the supplemental Winter candy board, sugar brick, fondant or mountain camp granulated sugar food source. This may require pulling the outer cover off and removing the inner cover and quickly adding any sugar supplement as needed. These checks on feeding needs should be done quickly and only on days when it is sunny with very little wind and a temperature above 50°F (10°C). The hive should be closed as quickly as possible so that any brood near the top does not get chilled. It will seem hard to wait for dandelion bloom to do a full hive and frame inspection when those occasional warm days or even a week occur in late February or during the erratic month of March. Early in my beekeeping career I pulled frames out when March weather was forecast to be sunny days with temps in the 60s and not falling below freezing for a full week. Even with frames identically replaced it seemed that on a later inspection the bees did not re-cluster as you would expect. I lost both hives largely due to my own eagerness to do an early full inspection and ignorance about variable Spring weather changes at the time.
Feeding Pollen and/or Sugar Syrup
Once the bees have access to new pollen, whether beekeeper provided or from natural sources, it is a signal to the bees for more brood production and the queen to begin laying more eggs. If pollen substitutes are provided too early in the late Winter or early Spring it will encourage the queen to lay more eggs that become brood which the diminishing number of Winter bees may not be able to keep warm. It is best to wait to add spring pollen patties when the bees are seen bringing pollen into the hive. This will occur after the first maple buds or dead nettles open that provide natural pollen. In the case of a first year hive as a result of a swarm catch, split or purchase of a new package, feeding of a pollen patty as well as a one to one sugar syrup mix is highly recommended. If the swarm was caught or the split was done during a dearth these resources provided by the beekeeper will help the hive get off to a good start. One past Summer I captured a swarm in mid-August and with heavy pollen and sugar syrup feeding, along with monitoring Winter supplemental food supplies, was able to bring the hive into the following Spring. Those bees would never have had enough time to store adequate supplies out on their own.
If an overwintered hive seems to have a small population or has used all their Winter food supplements it is also a good idea to provide one to one sugar syrup as an added resource. I like to switch to the sugar syrup at the time of the first full hive inspection using the solid sugar feeds up to that point. The one to one ratio comes closest to simulating a nectar flow and is particularly important if there is a Spring or early Summer dearth. A dearth is when there is more than two to three weeks without rain. Although the plants are still putting out growth and flowers, there is very little if any pollen or nectar being produced as the dearth drags on. If the bees do not seem to be using the beekeeper supplied sugar syrup it indicates the bees are finding sufficient nectar from their own natural sources. I once had an overwintered cluster that was no bigger than my fist by late Spring. However, that queen took off laying eggs and the hive turned out to be one of my best the next Summer. If feeding fondant, sugar bricks, candy boards or mountain camp sugar it is best to wait to reverse brood supers until sugar syrup can be provided.
Reversing Brood Supers
For the first year hive, the reversal of brood supers is not an issue. The package, swarm or split is placed in a new deep, medium super or nuc and only when near 90% filled will the next empty supers be added on top. For purposes of this article it is assumed that three medium supers are roughly equivalent to two deeps for those who work strictly with medium supers. For the second year overwintered hive there are two philosophies among beekeepers about super reversals. Some say not to reverse supers. This follows the idea that in the wild, bees that are living in trees do not have the option of reversing top and bottom comb areas. As the bees move up during the Winter and early Spring using up their food supply, the queen will move down when space above becomes unavailable and she will reuse the brood area left open below. In this case the beekeeper needs to keep a close eye on their hive, and only after it is seen that the queen has begun laying eggs in the bottom deep, then add honey supers above. If honey supers are added too quickly the queen will continue to move up and begin laying eggs in the honey super. This could be curtailed by using a queen excluder screen between the brood supers and honey supers, but I find the queen excluders when used seem to slow the storage of nectar in the honey supers. In a direct comparison where I used excluders next to hives where they were not used, the hives without excluders nearly always seem to be ahead, with stored nectar and honey, of those that had excluders below the honey supers. It is also a belief among some beekeepers that the egg and young larva brood frames are better when just below the nectar/honey food source just above. If the young open larva are above the food source this is thought to be backwards for the bees. This leads to the reasoning for the second option. The second option is to reverse the brood supers. The caution here is to not break up the main brood and egg cluster if it seems to be half on the top of the bottom super and half on the bottom of the top super, that is, split between two supers. If it is found that the queen is laying eggs and has brood in the upper super and the bottom super is mostly empty of eggs and brood, many beekeepers like to reverse the supers placing the emptier bottom super on top. Since the queen will be working up this provides ample space for eggs and brood before getting to a honey super. It also places any remaining stored honey and pollen just above the main brood super where the bees like to have it. A good time to do the reversal, if one chooses to do so, is at or shortly after the first full hive inspection as noted previously.
Adding Honey Supers
It is best to add honey supers by the first strong nectar flow to take full advantage of that flow. This will vary by area and available flora, but usually occurs by late April to early May in SE Michigan. If brood supers have been reversed I like to add two honey supers at the time of reversal to take full advantage of that first nectar flow. If supers were not reversed or if there is only one brood deep for the hive, I like to add a queen excluder until I see a good portion of the first honey super filled with nectar. When adding the second honey super I will pull the queen excluder off as it is not likely the queen will cross over a near full honey super to start laying eggs in an empty honey super above. It is a good idea to add any undrawn comb frames before or early in a nectar flow as this is when the bees are most encouraged to draw out comb. If drawn comb is available from previously extracted honey supers or empty brood frames from a previous season, it is an asset and an assist since the bees need about eight pounds of honey to make one pound of wax. First year honey supers need to be filled with the entire ten or eight frame set. After the first year one less frame can be used as long as they have drawn comb from a previous year. The bees will draw the comb out a bit farther making for easier cap removal during extraction. If nine (or seven) frames were to be used prior to comb being drawn the bees could cross frame the comb or make it a bit wonky due to the larger frame spacing.
Splits
The timing of when to do splits is another choice for the beekeeper. Normally I like to do splits a week or two after the first full hive inspection. At that point I know if the hive has enough brood to make a split, the state of the queen, and whether that queen is worthy of being placed in a nuc for sale or left in the hive for future propagation because of her superior genetics. For best results splits can be made anytime from early May to around the 4th of July in SE Michigan. I like to do splits earlier in that time frame rather than later as it gives the donating hive more time to recover. A strong split will take three frames of brood placed in the new nuc or hive along with at least one frame containing pollen and nectar or capped honey as a food source. If downsizing one’s hive count and a queen is moved to a nuc, the queenless remaining hive may be married to another using the newspaper method resulting in a very strong hive during the nectar flow. Although there are not set dates for splits, those occurring after July 4th may need more beekeeper assistance with pollen and sugar syrup substitutes much as previously mentioned for my mid-August swarm catch. This also assumes these are walk-away splits where either the nuc or the remaining queenless hive needs to produce a new queen. If a queen is to be purchased the timeframe for splits can be extended a bit later. Speaking of queens; drone production needs about a twelve day to two week head start before new queen rearing starts. Queens will fly some distance to mate with drones from other apiaries. The beekeeper can use his own hive drone production as a guide to when other nearby apiaries are producing drones to know when to start queen production. Beekeeper initiated splits are also a good way to minimize the possibility of a swarm emanating from a strong overwintered hive, but there are no guarantees.
To Summarize
Second year beekeeping will have additional requirements not seen with the first year hive. It is hoped that nearly all beekeepers can reach the degree of success to go into their second and subsequent years of beekeeping with strong, overwintered hives. If good notes were kept there is no reason to remake previous mistakes. The second year is when the real beekeeping chores begin. When beekeepers purchase locally raised bees in packages or nucs and use locally raised queens for any replacement purposes their self-sustainability may rise to a new level. With careful management in second and subsequent years hobby beekeepers should be able to expect increasing returns from their hives and their honey production.