SC Winter Beekeeping Winter management begins in December and goes thru March up to the nectar flow. Generally, the beekeeper should:

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1 December January - February March SC Winter Beekeeping Winter management begins in December and goes thru March up to the nectar flow. Generally, the beekeeper should: Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use. December Be looking for diseases Making sure the colony has enough honey and feeding if necessary Ordering last minute queens / NUCs / packages Ensure that excess water vapor from consumed honey is evaporated out of the hive Making sure the queen starts laying in the December / January time frame and builds up consistently and normally Swarm control measures starting the end of February / first of March Starting about mid-december the queen should start laying. Some colonies in South Carolina the queen will just reduce her egg laying in the November / December time frame and you will have brood in the colony year round. You need to check the colony for honey typically by lifting the back or side of the hive to determine if it feels heavy. A light hive, about the weight of the woodenware, should be fed internally. Do not use a Boardman feeder or division board/frame feeder since the cluster may not have access to the syrup when it is cold. Bees cluster at 57 degrees F., so you should inspect your hives when the external temperature is about 60 degrees F. The entrance reducer should be on the smallest opening. IPM bottom boards, that are open and screened on the bottom, I typically leave open. It rarely gets into the low 20 s at night and the bees have been shown to survive in much colder temperatures. A twig should be placed between the inner cover and outer cover to vent excess moisture from honey consumption. The bees have to maintain a degree F temperature in the brood cluster. On a cold day if the cluster is broken, they will have difficulty reforming the cluster. That is why the temperature should be about 60 degrees when you inspect the colony.one inspection mid- December is typically enough Hive Entrance The bees will typically fly when temperatures are above about 50 degrees F. Observe the hive entrance, to see if you see the following: The bees are flying If the bees are flying, are they bringing in pollen, which indicates that brood is being raised inside the colony. There is a correct number of guard bees and bee activity at the entrance for the time of the year.

2 2 Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use. Winter Management December..Continued Make those last minute bee and queen purchases this month. Also, this month you should continue repairing old equipment and assembling / painting any new equipment that you will need. Arranging for any additional out yards should also be done no later than this month since you will need time to prep the new out yard. January December & January Task Task for December, plus you should open the colony in Mid-January, when the temperature is above 60 degrees F to check for: Enough honey & pollen Queen laying with brood. Check the brood for presence of American Foulbrood (AFB). Check for Varroa. There will probably not be any Drone brood in January that you can inspect. Treat if necessary for Varroa or AFB. If you have AFB I recommend burning the hive. Check for other diseases and take necessary action. In South Carolina we typically do not have issues with dysentery since the bees are able to fly frequently and defecate. The Maples should start to bloom the end of January to first of February. You should be on the look for this and on warm days ensure that your colonies are bringing in pollen. This verifies that the queen is indeed laying and there is brood present in the colony. Corona Apicultores Facebook

3 3 February In February, ensure there is honey, pollen, disease free, and brood. This is when the colony needs the resources to ramp up for Spring. Brood rearing kicks into high gear around the end of February to first of March. Inspecting every two weeks the first of February and every 1-2 weeks the end of February depending on the season. Swarming conditions should be examined at the end of February. The colony typically can swarm any time after the Drones start flying the end of February to first of March. Swarm conditions are indicated in congestion in the brood nest. If the bees are wall to wall in the brood nest then you need to relieve this congestion by accomplishing one of the following: Removing frames and equalizing all your colonies; i.e. place the frames from super Weak Hive the strong colony in a weak colony. frames of brood with nurse bees Strong Hive deep Queen Excluder Brood/deep box 3 or 4 Frames from brood Box replace brood frames w/drawn comb Some beekeepers cut swarm queen cells. Most beekeepers cannot make this work since they either miss a swarm queen cell or the bees raise more swarm cells. This is also very labor intensive. Demaree - simulating swarming in one hive. You will keep all your workers in the same hive. Pagdening - In the Pagden method, the hive that is intending to swarm has a frame of brood together with the queen removed and placed into another brood chamber filled with drawn comb or foundation. This new hive is put on the old site and the parent hive containing the rest of the brood and bees moved to one side. The supers can go back to the old site too, as the foragers will rejoin the queen and, as there is little brood to feed, can store what they bring in. There will be a shortage of young bees in with the queen and so they will give up their inclination to swarm. The old parent part of the colony raises themselves another queen and the field force comes into the new hive believing they have swarmed. Move 3 frames of brood with day old eggs with 2 frames of honey stores. Removing frames and making up a NUC. Make sure all colonies are disease free. It is usually considered better to install a new queen rather than letting the SPLIT raise their own queen. This will impact your honey yield. When you let the colony raise their own queen it takes approximately days to raise the queen ( you can shorten this time by using a queen cell) + a week or ten days or so for the virgin queen to mate + 21 days for the worker brood to hatch. So, you are looking at six or so weeks to get workers which put you into mid-april.

4 4 February When you do swarm prevention measures, make sure both halves of the split have honey, pollen, and eggs / day old larvae. Just adding an additional super above the brood nest will not relieve congestion in the brood nest. You have to use swarm prevention measures to relieve this brood nest congestion. Splitting simulates the bees natural swarming of one swarm a year from a strong colony. Splitting also implements a brood break which helps minimize your Varroa count. Swarm cells are typically toward the bottom of the brood frames. You are looking for enlarged cells that hang down from the frames and look like a peanut in the shell. Empty queen cups on the frames are a poor indicator of swarming. Swapping locations of a strong colony with a weak colony resulting in the weak colony receiving more field bees. March In March ensure there is honey, pollen, disease free, and brood. Honey quantity should be observed at least weekly and feed as necessary. Colonies can go thru a deep frame or more of honey in a week or less; especially toward the end of the month. Most of our colonies that starve are in March. Checks of nectar flow occurrence should occur toward the end of the month. I recommend that honey supers be placed on hive the fourth week in March. It is better to be ahead of the nectar flow than is late. Always look for swarm conditions and take the necessary actions. Last of March All medications should be removed from the hive the first of March to middle of March depending on what you are treating with. There are 3 basic ways to detect a nectar flow. White Honey Comb (top left) and Nectar (lower right) 1. The first way is opening the colony and seeing white fresh comb on the edges of your drawn honey supers. 2. The second way is to visually inspect for fresh nectar in the colony. 3. The third way is observing bees flying in and out with a sense of purpose. flying with a purpose

5 5 David MacFawn Biography David Elgie MacFawn: He is a North Carolina Master Craftsman Beekeeper, Co-Founded the South Carolina Master Beekeeping Program, awarded South Carolina Beekeeper of the Year, assisted Dr. Fell at Virginia Tech in the Virginia Master Beekeeping Program, Incorporated the South Carolina Beekeepers Association as a 501 C 3 Non Profit Corporation, and published several (over five) articles in the American Bee Journal. David has kept bees in Maryland (Dark German bees), Virginia (Italian), North Carolina (Italian), Colorado (Russian), and South Carolina (Italian and Russian Hybrid). David s Work History: David has a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Operations Research. David was in the computer business for over 30 years and was a Customer Service director responsible for worldwide support planning, training/education, logistics, call center support, and professional services at Sun Microsystems and a subset of this at NCR. David was also a Federal Systems Product Manager responsible for new DOD system definition and development at Data General. David s Beekeeping Business Endeavors: David is a beekeeping author and has co-authored a practical guide to beekeeping book, "Getting the Best From Your Bees". He also developed, marketed, and supported spreadsheets analyzing financial aspects of the honey and pollination businesses, and beeswax candle production and sales. David and his wife reside in the Columbia, South Carolina, and is an active sideline beekeeper. Copyright David E. MacFawn 2014; SCBA and SC local associations have permission to use. All artwork & graphics was taken with permission from the web or was the personal property of Cynthia Robinson. If you are interested in reprints of this document, please contact dmacfawn@aol.com or rainbowcirclehoneyfarm@gmail.com State Association Newsletter. Cynthia Robinson Bio The Winter Management was edited and graphic layout created by Cynthia Robinson. Known as the Beekeeper On Duty. Cynthia lives in Clover, SC with her husband. She has two grown married sons with three grand children. Cynthia began beekeeping in 2005 with Sally Adams/Mamabeehive as her mentor. Cynthia is a Journeyman Beekeeper and is now holding a SC State office as Secretary and acts as media tech at all SC Conferences. Cynthia also serves as the Web Administrator for SC State Beekeepers Association. Cynthia has published many beekeeping newsletters for local and currently produces the