BEEKEEPING
From page 18
some eucalyptus trees do not
flower at all.
Where there is insufficient
forage to sustain these hives,
the strong hives will rob out
the weak hives and where
there are too many strong
hives some will abscond, in
both cases resulting in empty
hives. And work for the
beekeeper to replace these
swarms, for the sooner these
swarms are replaced the
sooner honey will be
obtained, and the sooner the
wolf is kept away from the
door!
K Avoid congestion of the
brood chambers. There are
two situations of congestion,
one is by bees, house bees
and field worker bees and the
other is by honey overstock-
ing.
In the case of bees, house
bees continually occupy the
brood rearing area and during
the day the field bees travel
up the insides of the hive
from the immediate cells
Failure to perform various spring-cleaning tasks
around the small winter
in and around the hive will encourage the bees
brood nest to create space for
to develop a swarming instinct and desert the hive
walls to the honey chamber
above the brood nest. There is
a continual movement and a
disturbance and circulation of
air. At the entrance the bees
will control the airflow during
the day and night on warm
summer nights.
At night the field bees need a
place to rest and they do so in
the super and above the super
frames, where space has been
provided by a space in the lid
construction, or just an empty
super on the top above the
honey storing area of the first
super.
Should one notice a cluster of
bees on the outside front of
the hive at night, it is a sure
sign of congestion, but
unfortunately by that time the
swarming impulse has been
realised and the bees will
swarm off.
In the case of overstocked
honey, on a permanent site
on the Highveld there are
often two honey flows, one
September to November and
the second from Mid-January
to end of April, or the first
frost in frosty areas.
The beekeeper would have
removed the November crop
but would leave the April crop
for the winter.
As the brood rearing reduces
and the brood nest recedes
with the onset of winter, the
bees draw honey from the
super and pack this honey in
the emptying cells of the
reducing brood nest. This
honey acts as an insulation for
the nest from the cold for the
small brood nest.
K Springtime swarming.
Sudden warm Spring weather
in August and September sets
the queen in laying mode and
the bees now remove honey
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the queen to lay eggs.
The beekeeper needs now to
help to provide this additional
rapid demand of egg laying
space and this operation is
called “Spring Cleaning.”
In the brood chamber, he
removes one outside frame
from each side of the brood
nest. He creates a space in
the center of the remaining
brood area and inserts the
two new frames of foundation
wax.
Failure to perform this
management operation sets
up a swarming impulse in the
swarm and the swarm will
swarm off.
K Failure to remove previous
season's honey. Should the
beekeeper not have removed
any honey for the entire
season, the hive becomes
choc-a-bloc with honey and
the bees will most definitely
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