LESSON: 56 HOW TO TELL WHEN YOUR HIVE IS QUEENLESS

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Hello, from Long Lane Honey Bee Farm. We are David & Sheri Burns operating a honey bee farm in Central Illinois. We not only enjoy beekeeping, but it is a passion for us too. We especially enjoy helping more and more people enter the wonderful hobby of beekeeping.

Beekeeping is more than just a few crazy people, wearing funny hats and risking their lives while playing with killer bees. First of all, beekeepers keep gentle bees. For the most part, honey bees are gentle, busy and are not aggressive. We raise queens, and we make sure that the queens we raise are from hives that are not aggressive. Of course the worker bees do have stingers, so proper handling of the bees along with adequate protective clothing is necessary. Beekeeping is a billion dollar industry. Millions of hives are kept by beekeepers across the US.

Because honey bees are becoming scarcer, it is important to educate our local communities on the important role honey bees play in providing us with healthy food through pollination of our crops. Without the honey bee our fruits and vegetables would be at great risk.

Here's a squadron of bees returning to base loaded heavily with nectar. Beyond needing our bees to provide our food, bees are just fun to keep! There is so much to learn and learning is fun. To keep bees and broaden our understanding of the honey bee is a wonderful and very therapeutic past time and hobby.

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Today, I want to share about keeping a strong queen in your hive.

Lesson 55: HOW TO TELL WHEN YOUR HIVE IS QUEENLESS

Queenlessness is serious. In fact, queenlessness is the single most greatest threat to a hive’s survivability than any other disease or pest. Yet, it is easier to correct and overcome than other pests and diseases. Then why is queenlessness such an issue? In this lesson I want to address several key factors about queenlessness: 1) Why do queens die or disappear? 2) How to determine if your colony is queenless 3) How to make a queenless colony queen right 3) What to look for when your hive is about to become queenless 4) How to determine how long your hive has been queenless 5) What causes a worker to start laying in a queenless hive 6) How to deal with a laying worker 7) Suggestions to help avoid your hive from becoming queenless.

Every hive has only one queen. Her primary role is to lay eggs, sometimes 1,000 – 3,000 a day. Without a prolific queen, the colony will never build up in population and will always lack adequate foragers, thus there will be a constant lack of incoming pollen, nectar and water. The colony will eventually become so weak that it will succumb to pests or diseases.

However, with a young and prolific queen a colony will quickly increase in population and ample supplies of pollen, nectar and water will allow the hive to expand, be productive and resist most common pests and diseases. Therefore, a queen right hive is essential at all times during the year. Queen right is a term used to define a hive that has a prolific queen. As you can see in the picture below of a hive, it is full of bees. We believe that by keeping a hive very crowded, but not congested, a hive remains strong enough to resist most pests and diseases.

Notice how the many bees cover almost all of the frames on top. I removed one frame to inspect and to be sure the queen is laying good. But even hives that are queen right can suddenly become queenless. How does this happen so quickly?

Why do queens die or disappear? Remember, honey bees are livestock. More specifically, bees are bugs, insects that are at great risk not only from the normal threat of nature, but also from the hostile world beyond the sweet clover fields and tranquil meadows. Traffic, pesticides, insecticides, and those who see all insects as a pest pose a great threat to the survival of the honey bee. Because a queen is a small ¾ inch bug, she too can perish for various reasons. She can become ill or old and die. She can accidentally be smashed by the beekeeper when frames are pushed back together or covers are placed on a hive. She can be killed by the other bees if she shows signs of inferiority. And when another queen is raised in the same hive, the queens will fight and only one will survive, but certainly they both can perish in the fight.

A virgin queen must fly out of the hive several times to mate. This mating flight can be very treacherous. She can easily become a tasty meal for a bird or fall victim to nasty weather while she’s out. And even if she does make it back, the question is, did she mate adequately. So even though a hive can successfully raise their own queen, there is no better proof that the colony has a prolific queen until eggs are visible.

How do we determine that our colony is queenless? No eggs. You can click on the images to see a larger version. Study the picture and familiarize yourself in identifying eggs and larvae. An egg stands up in the bottom of a cell. By day three, the egg has laid down on the bottom of a cell and hatched into a larvae. You can see the royal jelly surrounding the larvae in the picture.

Even if a mated queen is present but we see no eggs, we are essentially queenless. You’ll develop a skill that will allow you to open up your hive and listen to the bees and observe their behavior. A queenless hive usually has a louder roar, and usually appears more disorganized. If you do not see any eggs on any frames, then you are queenless.

How can we make a queenless colony queen right? Purchase a new, mated queen in a cage and introduce her to the new hive with a candy plug. Or if the hive is raising their own queen, allow them to do so. If you allow the colony to raise their own queen, you will have to wait longer until the virgin queen emerges, matures, mates and starts laying. If you purchase a mated queen, she will start laying within a few days.

Is there a way we can tell if our colony is about to become queenless? Yes and no. Obviously if the beekeeper smashes and kills the queen, this cannot be known in advance. However, if the current queen has space to lay but is laying poorly, then the colony may try to replace her soon or they may not. Or if you see mostly drone brood, which sticks up above the smooth worker brood more like bullets, then you know your queen will soon perish. Also, if you see queen cells, either swarm cells on the lower part of the frame or supersedure cells on the upper half of the frame, then watch your hive carefully. Something may be wrong and it may become queenless. Finally, if you know the age of your queen, then you can determine how long she has left. This is somewhat unknown because some queens can do real well for several years, maybe three or four years. Some are only good for one year. Therefore, it is best to requeen your colony each year.

When you find that your hive is queenless, it is important to know how long it has been without a queen. This will tell you how long you have to obtain a new queen. For example, if you see only sealed brood as in the picture to the left, you know that your queen has been gone for more than a week. Sealed brood looks different than sealed honey. Sealed brood is usually darker and more textured looking. Whereas sealed honey is brighter and looks more wet. If you need help learning the difference, just use a tooth pick and poke a cell to see what's inside. If you see unsealed larvae, then you have some time before your hive experiences the affects of queenlessness. But you should work promptly to provide a new queen.

The unsealed brood means that those bees will be hatching in about 15 days so you still have new bees on their way. Let me test you. If your queen is missing but you see what's in the photo to the left, how long has your queen been gone? You can click on the image to enlarge. Some of the larvae is sealed or capped, but some are exposed. So we know the capped larvae are atleast 8 days old and the uncapped ones are large enough to be atleast 6-7 days old. So you've been without a queen for about a week. You have time to act, but you must act fast to purchase a new mated queen so there will be a minimal gap of emerging workers to keep the hive strong.


However, if there are no eggs and no sealed brood, it means that you will have nothing more than what you have. Each day, your hive will become smaller in number because without emerging brood the older bees will die. If you have no brood at all, sealed or unsealed, then you have an emergency! You must get a queen within the next few days. Pay extra and have her sent overnight. Every day counts. Your hive is a mere 30 days away from total collapse. Act fast.

Once the queen has perished, and the hive has attempted but failed to raise a replacement, you must act fast because without a queen, workers could become what is known as a laying worker. With the strong pheromone of open brood, not the queen pheromone, the other female workers’ ability to lay is suppressed. But without open brood pheromones, several female workers may start laying eggs. But since a female worker is not fully develop as a layer nor has she ever mated, nor could she, then her eggs are all infertile thus they will only become drones, male bees.

A laying worker in a hive usually means certain death of the colony. Since a laying worker will only produce male drones, the absence of workers means certain collapse of your hive. A laying worker does not have the long abdomen of a queen so when she lays, she cannot always place her eggs on the bottom of a deep cell. The eggs are often found on the side of a cell. But the obvious sign that you have a laying worker is that each cell contains many eggs. Sometimes a newly mated queen or a queen without room to lay may lay more than one egg in a cell, but a laying worker will fill up a cell with eggs. Study my photo here to familiarize yourself with what the eggs look like from having a laying worker. See the numerous eggs in the cells. Remember to click on the image to enlarge for a closer look.

It is suggested that even strong, queen right colonies always have a few laying workers, but the bees keep them in check. From the photo, can you see which one is the laying worker? No, you cannot. They are impossible to spot.

How do you get rid of a laying worker? Some say you can dump all the bees out in the yard, twenty feet or more away from the hive and the laying worker cannot find her way back in. Others say she can and will fly back. Some claim to have made special queen introduction cages which allow the newly mated queen to lay eggs on comb under a cage and eventually the bees will kill the laying worker. But introducing a queen into a hive with a laying worker often means the laying worker and her gang will attack and kill the newly introduced queen. And you’ll never find a laying worker. Don’t even bother trying, they all look the same.

I’ve had success by introducing new queens in cages into a laying worker hive, but it does take several tries. Unless you raise your own queens, this can be costly. It is easiest for me to remove a few frames from a queen right hive with the queen on it, and place them against the wall of a laying worker hive. The good queen along with her two frames of bees seem to seek and destroy the laying worker. Then you can easily replace the queen that you removed from the queen right hive.

The traditional solution is to take all the frames out of a laying worker hive and give them to strong colonies. The strong colony will usually kill the laying worker.

Finally, how can beekeepers protect their hives from becoming queenless?

Inspect your hive every 2 weeks. You do not necessarily have to spot the queen as long as you see that there is a good number of eggs and larvae. The photo to the left is what you want to find. Brood in various stages including eggs. This photo shows eggs near the edge of the frame.

Also be sure there is plenty of room for the queen to lay. If you see your hive is honey or pollen bound, you either have to shake out the pollen or extract the honey or put in empty drawn comb if you have some available. Failure to provide room in your hive for expansion can cause the bees to become congested. Remember we advocated crowded hives, but not congested hives. A congested hive means there is no more open, drawn out cells for the queen to lay in, or the forages to store pollen and nectar. Thus they will prepare to swarm.

Yesterday one of our hives did just that. Because we crowd our hives, they can become congested faster than we can sometimes give them drawn comb. But we'd rather err on the side of being too crowded than having a small and weak colony. Swarms are friendly. This swarm was gracious enough to agree to have their picture taken with me. I later shock them into a new hive and they are content now. By the way, if you are a beekeeper, you absolutely must have an extra hive on hand to catch swarms, swarms that come from your hive or for when you are called upon to help save a swarm near you. Yesterday a gentleman called us because he caught a swarm and had nothing to put it in.

Fortunately, we rushed him out a hive. But we cannot always send a hive right out, so please plan ahead. June is a big swarm month. Hives seem to swarm more on the first nice day after a storm or rainy weather. Now the hive that produced this swarm may become queenless. Hopefully they did their job, and produced a new queen. The old queen leaves with the swarm and the new emerging queen takes over. But remember, she is virgin queen, and must fly a mile or two away to mate with other drones, not from her hive. She can be killed in her flight by birds or storms. Will she make it back, and will she be mated well. Much is at stake.


Replace your queen yearly to ensure you have a young, prolific queen. Each day we send out queens to beekeepers across the country. These are queens that we raise from our honey bee farm that show the characteristics that we want in a honey bee.

We gather queens from their mating nucs once they've proven to be good layers. Then we add 4 attendants to care for the queen during shipment. Then, we add the candy plug along with one drop of water for the 1-2 day trip. It works out well.



We have mating nucs scatter throughout. The queens do not mate in the nuc, but it merely provides a place for the queen to live, be cared for and to show how well she can lay after she mates.


These mating nucs are near a cedar tree and use it as a land mark to find their way back to their specific hive. It is amazing that a queen can fly out, travel for miles to mate, and return home.

I was holding a virgin queen in my hand a few weekends ago, showing her to several people. She took flight, flew around a few times and was gone. The people were sad that she flew away. About twenty minutes later, she came back and landed on my leg. I picked her up and put her back in her cage. She did not mate on this flight. When queens return home from mating, they have the last male's genitalia still attached. Even though she returned home without a mating sign, it was still impressive that she had such a great sense of orientation and returned to her original take off point.

In fact, in my main mating yard, I can't even find my way around, but the queens do great picking out which hive is their home.


Some people use colors or markings on the hives or physical land marks, but we've found that for the most part the queens do fine finding their way back home.

Well, this concludes today's lesson and I hope it has been helpful to you in being able to keep your hive queenright!

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Until next time, BEE-have yourself!

David & Sheri Burns
LONG LANE HONEY BEE FARMS
http://www.honeybeesonline.com/
217-427-2678

LESSON 55: SWARMS, HOW TO MAKE A QUEEN INCUBATOR & MORE...

Welcome to Long Lane Honey Bee Farms! We are David & Sheri Burns, and we enjoy making a livelihood from bees. Now that it is June, our bees are really keeping us busy. It has been another challenging spring. We've had our share of rain and cool weather, but as the season progresses the weather conditions improve. We are producing lots of nucs and queens. We were issued a clean bill of health from our state's apiary inspection program through the Department of Agriculture, so we are happy about that! Now, I'm spending long days preparing the nucs. We sold over 60 nucs, so that's keeping me out in the bee yards all day long.

Our queens are doing great again this year, and filling up the brood area faster than we can keep new frames supplied for the queens to have room to lay. We are working hard every day grafting and raising queens! We are having very good results both in successful queen rearing techniques as well as the characteristics that we are seeing in our queens. Our queens orders are about a week behind but we are producing queens as fast as we can. It does take time to properly test the queens characteristics and make sure they are mated well. Queen rearing is a fine art. We have even added a few "trade secrets" to make our queens even better this year. We had to take the queens off our website due to demand out running supplies.
This is the time of year for swarming and we are having our fair share of swarms this year. No matter how many swarms we have, it is still beautiful to observe. A swarm is worthy of our full attention. Until you've stood in the middle of a swarm before, you can't say you've really experienced a swarm. My son was weed-eating and heard a swarm roar over the sound of the weed-eater!

Below is a video of a swarm that I shook from a tree near my nuc yard. Healthy hives swarm! Seriously, a reproductive swarm means that the hive was strong and healthy enough to produce another colony. Another reason bees swarm is because they become congested. Another "trade secret" that I will share with you, is that we overcrowd our hives and in so doing, they often become congested. I feel it is better to have a strong, crowded colony than a weak and struggling hive. Strong and crowded hives are more apt to resist pests and diseases. There is strength in numbers. As a result of the way we overcrowd our hives, we do have the occasional swarm like this one. Let me show you how I shake swarms from trees.

For the most part, swarms are not aggressive. I am occasionally stung by bees from a swarm but usually not. If you keep your hives near bushy trees like pines or a blue spruce, they usually land in the tree low enough where you can capture them and put them in a hive.

I learned something from an "old timer" beekeeper who said if beekeepers would stop chasing swarms and spend that time taking care of their own hives, they'd have better hives. I tend to agree with him. We have turned down most of this year's swarm calls. It just isn't worth it.

I' ve found that swarms like to land in my old ceder tree. This tree has been the resting place for many swarms over the last few years.

Not all swarms land low. Here's my oldest son, David, after he climbed a 30 foot tree with a Bee-Vac and captured a swarm that filled this entire holding cage. It was on the trunk of the tree and would have been impossible to remove without a bee-vac. We sell these, by the way.

The only reason I occasionally catch a swarm is to use it to draw comb. Swarms are good comb builders! Sometimes that's the only thing I use swarms for is to draw out foundation.

It's usually the old queen that leaves with the swarm, so when you catch a swarm it is usually a good idea to re-queen that swarm or it may not make it through the upcoming winter with the older queen.

In April, I flew down to Florida to shake packages and as you may remember from an earlier lesson, I mentioned that I was able to visit with commercial queen producer, David Miksa. In the April and May issue of the American Bee Journal, David was featured in a large article about his life long pursuit of producing queens. Every year I continue to sharpen my queen rearing skills and it is through knowing people like Dr. Joe Latshaw and David Miksa and others that I am able to improve my line of queens. I added about 5 different "survival" genetic stocks that I purchased from other parts of the US. I believe genetic diversity is crucial to very productive queens.

When I visited David Miksa, I was impressed with his incubator. When you produce large numbers of queens, you will need a place to hold sealed queen cells, especially when there is a bottle neck, say your mating nucs are still full as you wait for those queens to mate and to be used in hives or sold. What I like about David's incubator is that it has a glass door. And as we talked about it, he told me that it was just a glass door refrigerator. He added a heating element along with dual thermostats in case one goes bad.

Last year we used a "Little Giant" 9200 chicken egg incubator. They are around $50 and you'll need to keep your cells at around 92 degrees.

When I was at Sam's Club a few weeks ago, I noticed that they had a nice size, small, pop-can refrigerator just alittle over $150 with a glass door. With a glass door, you can more easily see your cells and monitor the temperature and humidity. It fits nicely under my counter.

I bought it and then removed the important parts from my 9200 chicken incubator and placed the heating elements and thermostat on a piece of plywood. Then, I placed the electronics on the bottom shelf of the fridge.

I wired the heating element up by routing it through the drain hole in the lower back part of the inside fridge. So, I didn't have to make any alterations to the fridge. So when I'm not raising queens, I can use it for an extra fridge.

You'll find as a beekeeper you can save lots of money by making your own incubator instead of buying one. Many queen producers make it even more simple by taking an old fridge, even one that no longer works, and simply place a low wattage light inside. You can wire the door switch so that the light is always on, and then put it on a thermostat to keep it around 92 degrees using a VERY low watt bulb. That's right, a light bulb will keep it warm enough. This works well too. There are lots of old refrigerators out there, and you may even fine one with a glass door.

I hope that by sharing insightful information about queen rearing, that more and more beekeepers may try their hand at it. It is quite easy and very enjoyable and rewarding, not to mention it can save you money from not having to buy queens when you need them. And by raising your own queens, you can also raise queens from the hives that you like best.

Also in this lesson, I want to WARN you to keep an eye on your queen. Inspect your hive every 14 days to be sure she is alive and laying well. If you lose your queen, your entire hive will all perish within 6 weeks, so be sure to keep an eye on your queen, and replace her with a new one at the first sign that she has perished.

Here's a picture of one of our "Pioneer Queens" this year. Also, I must stress how important it is that you replace your queen every year. When a virgin queen mates, she stores the sperm from the drones in her spermatheca. She usually mates with 15-20+ drones on a few mating flights. Because she stores the sperm, she will eventually run out. Then, she can only lay unfertilized eggs, which only makes drones, male honey bees. So by requeening your hive every year, you are insuring that she is able to lay strongly throughout that year and into the next spring.

People often ask me when is the best time to requeen a hive. Typically, any time is better than not doing it at all. Bees requeen their own hives whenever there is a need, so we can too. But I believe timing of requeening each year can produce different results. In other words, if your old queen is starting to not lay well in March, then by all means replace her so that you can have the results you want in March which is a better brood pattern, which means more bees. But, if you are replacing your queen simply because you want a younger queen, then you MUST do this after the turning of days (June 21).

Melvin Disselkoen became an EAS Master Beekeeper in 1986 and has worked bees for over 35 years. He wrote an article about outbreeding the mites. His research and explanation of outbreeding the mites makes real good sense, and it was while reading his work that I realized it is best to requeen after June 21.

His complete article on this can be found on his website at:

http://www.mdasplitter.com/article.htm

His point is that if you requeen after July 21, a new queen will outbreed the mites. The brood cycle of a mite is 13 days, and a worker bees is 16 days. Since a new queen after June 21 lays like a spring queen, she will out-lay the mites. Less mites means healthier overwintered colonies and better spring build up. That's a huge reason to wait until after June 21. Other reasons for requeening each year include: swarm reduction, stronger spring build up, better honey production due to increased spring foragers and more.
I've also been very busy preparing nucs. Some days I spend 12 hours a day working the hives to pull out 4 frames to meet our nuc demands. I'll be glad when the last of the nucs are gone! Here's a picture of my youngest son, Christian, after we packed up some nucs. These were a special order as you can see they are nucs, but they are all on medium foundation. Some beekeepers like using all medium size boxes rather than the larger deep hive bodies. We are happy to help out. Beekeeping is usually a skill based on knowledge, wisdom and experience. However, I've learned that making nucs is an art! It is not for the faint at heart.

I could go on and on, but I do want to address a very large problem within the beekeeping community. It's not CCD, though there are more cases of it than CCD, I'm sure. The problem I'd like to address is the disappearing hive tool. Where do they go? How can they disappear? Are aliens from other planets stealing our hive tools with some huge magnet from the mother ship? I doubt it. But I've solved my personal problem of lost hive tools. I bought a nice one! :)

Not only do I lose hive tools, but I leave them in the back of pickup trucks or on top of a hive, and because they are metal, they will rust. Leave one on the ground all winter, and it will almost rust away by spring.  Click here to go to our online store for this item. 

If you are still needing hive equipment you can order it online or give us a call. Our contact information is below. Thanks so much for following these lessons!

Until next time, remember to Bee-have yourself!

David & Sheri Burns

Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

www.honeybeesonline.com

217-427-2678

EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com

LESSON 54: The Details Of Queen Rearing

Hello From Long Laney Honey Bee Farms! We are David & Sheri Burns helping you to learn and enjoy keeping honey bees. If you have not listened to our Studio Bee Live broadcast, please do. We answer beekeeping questions and give out good advice. Click here to listen now or go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/studiobeelive.html

This is where we just sit around and talk about beekeeping with you. Tune in and enjoy the fun.


Your bees should all be doing well now that there is plenty of nectar sources for the bees to forage on. Keep an eye on your mite populations and if you see more than you should, then consider using the GREEN DRONE COMB. These combs are plastic and have the drone cell size embossed on them already. The strategy behind the green comb is to have the queen lay these full of drone eggs, because the mites like the longer brood cycle of the drones (24 days until they emerge). Once the green drone comb is sealed, remove it, freeze it for 24 hours, scrap out the dead mites (and drones), then put it back in. Use 1 or 2 green comb against the wall of a deep hive body.

We've been busy trying to get our queen operation up to full speed. I want to try and wet your appetite about raising your own queens. It is very simple to do. There are many methods and one that we use is a combination of the Doolittle method and the Smith method. Jay Smith was a beekeeper in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Indiana. I like his method the most. He grafted larva into queen cells, and then placed them in a starter hive, then after a day or two he placed them into a finishing hive. We have found this to be very effective. Some people do not even use a starter hive, they just place the grafts into a large hive above a queen excluder.

LESSON: 53: THE DETAILS OF QUEEN REARING

In our last lesson, I gave you an overview and some simple approaches to raising your own queen. Today, I want to go into a bit more depth on this subject. Before I do, let me remind you that on May 16th, I will be offering a one day hands-on course here on our honey bee farm just on queen rearing. This is on Saturday from 9am - 3pm with lunch provided. I'll teach you the fundamentals on queen rearing as well as take you out into the apiary to see first hand how to build a starter hive and what to look for in a finishing colony. If you'd like to take this class, please call us as registration is limited to 12. Call 217-427-2678.

Several people have asked me to explain about making my own queen cell cups from our own wax. Because some wax has been found to be contaminated with chemicals used to treat mites, we prefer either to use plastic cell cups or to make our own cups from our wax.

My father-n-law made me my cell cup maker. He started with a 1/4 inch dowel rod. The harder the wood the better, but anything will work well. He then used his grinder to shape the ends down to about 3/8 of an inch that tapers down as seen in the picture, which you can click on for a larger image. He then drilled holes slightly smaller than 1/4 inch and inserted the rods into a piece of wood. To dip these rod, you must first dip the tips into cold water. The more wet the tips are the easier it is to remove the queen cups.

Now, heat up your wax. We use a skillet we bought for $50 at Wal-mart. It works great for us.It has a thermostat so controlling the wax is very easy.

Now, the trick is to not make your cups larger than they need to be. Otherwise, it makes grafting more difficult. Dip them so that the wax goes up onto the rods between 3/8-5/16 of an inch. Now, I dip once, pull it out for about 20 seconds and re-dip. And I do it again. I usually dip around 3 or 4 times. Then, I have a large pan of icy water near by and I dip my cells down into the cold icy water for a minute or so. Now, I can gently twist off my cells. The first time or two on new wood can make it hard to remove the cells. But always dip the wood tips in cold water prior to dipping into wax. The more you use it the easier it is to get the cups off because the tips are not as porous. You can see my hot skillet in the picture, and I leave it just like this all the time. When I'm finished, I turn it off and put a lid on it. Then, the next time I want to use it, I crank it up and it's ready. Never anything to clean up and my wife has more pots and pans since I bought my own.

Now you need to prepare to graft. It takes proper planning to graft successfully. I use a cutter's board for easy clean up and keeps my graft area clean and tidy. When grafting larvae, it is important to keep them moist. Temperature is not a factor but moisture is. You do not want them to dry out. I use wet paper towels. As you can see, I place several wet paper towels flat on the cutter's block so that when I set my frame of larvae on it, the underside will remain moist. By the way, larva is one and larvae is more than one.

So set up your area, whether it is the kitchen table or the dash of your pickup truck, make sure you have everything you need. Grafting tool, flash light, magnifying glass or reader glasses, wet paper towels (a box of wet wipes works fine too and can be stored easily), cell cups on bar and cell cup frame.

Here's one of my experimental cell bars. As you can see, I'm trying to see if any of these cups make better queens. The first cup on the left is a plastic cup which I dipped into wax. The second and third cups are plastic and not dipped. The forth cup is a homemade wax cup and the rest are plastic. Most have found very little difference between the above cup configuration and therefore most grafters use the plastic cups. We use a combination now, but we do enjoy making our own cell cups. One reason is we do not reuse our plastic cups. So we always feel bad just throwing away hundreds of these cups. They can be cleaned but the effort is too hard and not worth the time.

Now, go out to the hive of your choice, a gentle hive that produces great honey and is not prone to have pest and disease issues. You now want to find a good frame to take back to graft from. Obviously you do not want a frame of honey, sealed brood or pollen. Some sealed brood is fine, like in the picture, because around the edge of this frame are some perfect aged larvae. An egg stands up in the base of a cell. But it lays down around day 3 or 4 and becomes a larva. We want to find the perfect age larva which by the naked eye will look like a comma on this page , and is about the same size only without the little dot at the top of the comma. Slightly curved laying flat on the bottom of the cell in royal jelly...that's what you are looking for. If it is too old, it will be more shaped like the letter c. In which case, they will not be able to feed it the "queen's food" as early as needed and the quality of the queen will suffer.

Once you find the perfect frame with the larvae you want to graft take it into your grafting room. Some people transport their frames in a cooler with some moist towels or rags and this is needed if there is considerable distance between your hive and where you will graft. I have actually grafted out in the apiary if the weather is not too bad. Try not to mishandle the frame. Just don't toss it in the back of your pickup truck.

Now, we are in the grafting room. Hope fills the air. You feel like a scientist or a surgeon about to perform the unbelievable... the unimaginable. Okay...stop thinking that way. It's not a big deal. Calm down.

Place your frame on the board with the top of the frame closest to you. The cells are angled toward the top slightly so this will help you see down into the cells. Find your comma shaped larva and use your grafting tool to scoop under it, taking the royal jelly and all. Now, place it into your new cell cup. You MUST keep the larva on the same side. In other words, whatever side was facing up before you grafted, make sure she lands in the new cup with that same side facing up. Bees breathe through spiracles on each side, and if you flip the larva over they will suffocate.

I love the Chinese grafting tool. I'm fast with it. It has a nice feel for me, and even has a little click when I release the larva into the new cup. But you can experiment to see which cup you like best. As you can see in the image, the Chinese grafting tool has a red button at the top and a small tip on the end. The tip is flexible and made of some sort of animal horn. The tip is flexible enough to go down into a cell, bend underneath the larva and royal jelly and then you just lift it out, being careful not to scrap the wall of the cell on the way back up.

Now you press the tip down into the base of the cell, centering well and slowly push the red bottom which pushes a piece of wood forcing the larva and royal jelly off the tip and into the base of the new cell.

You can see the wood in this close up picture and the top of the flexible horn can be seen in this picture as well. These grafting tools are easy to clean and reuse again and again. However, many people make their own grafting tools out of used dentist tools, tooth picks and other items. There are even expensive, more professional type grafting tools as well, so you'll have to test and see which one works best for you.

Your grafting technique will improve with practice. If you are unsuccessful at first, try grafting older, larger larvae just to test with. They are too old to work as queens, but it might be a starting point for you to try and then keep grafting smaller and smaller until you are comfortable with a 4 day old larva the size of a ",".

When I first started I would watch my grafting, looking into each cell and watching the whole time. Now, once I see the right aged larva, I do not look but just scoop and drop.

You do need good lighting and you might need visual assistance if you can't see up close. I go to Wal-mart and purchase reader glasses that are around 2.75 or 3+ magnification. Then I can graft with the eyesight of a 10 year old.

The more you graft the more you'll set up your operation to your needs.

Once I find the right larva to graft then I allow my tool to go into the cell until the tip hits the bottom. Then I let it curve under the larva. Now, I tilt it slightly backward so that the sticky larva is lifted from the base of the cell. The smaller the larvae the better, but more difficult it is to see and transfer. You do not want to move eggs. Eggs are too attached to the bottom and can be easily damaged. Once you've placed the larvae into the cups, do not be afraid when you are finished to turn them over. They will not fall out as they are stuck!

I usually graft about 60 cells at a time. I have a second set of paper towels handy so that I can cover the cells that I graft to keep them moist. Remember temperature is not so much of an issue when larvae are this young, but they can dry out.

So when I finish each bar, I cover it with a wet paper towel and keep covering each one I complete until I am ready to place the frames of cells into my starter hive.

Last week I mentioned how to prepare your starter hive, but let me mention it again. You want young nurse bees packed into the starter nuc or hive. They need to be extremely over crowded! Your grafts will be much more successfully the more over crowded your starter hive is. It should be difficult to get the lid on! And, of course, it needs to be queenless and have some honey and pollen.

Now transfer your grafts into your starter hive for 24-36 hours. Then, move them over to a larger queenright hive above a queen excluder. Just remember, the cups are going to be capped around day 8 so you can remove the queen cells and place them in your nucs between day 8-10. In case you grafted older larva, you might have your timing of emergence off, so to avoid a queen killing the rest by emerging early, I like to gather my sealed cells on day 10, not day 11!

The reason we like the finishing hive is because of it's size, it can better tend to a larger number of grafts whereas the smaller nuc or starter hive may not raise all grafts due to limit resources.

Remember when handling queen cups after day 10 that you must be careful and they must stay around 92 degrees. Handle them gently and keep them in their vertical position. The wings are the last to develop and rough treatment could cause the wings to be underdeveloped and then they may not be able to fly and mate.

Once your queens emerge and you are ready to sell them, and you want to mark them. This makes it easier for the customer to find them in the future. The International queen color code is determined by the year. All years ending in their respective number determines the color as seen in this image.

The best way to mark your queen is to purchase a queen marking pen. These work really well. Some claimed a marked queen may not be as accepted, but we have never had hives act negatively toward a marked queen. I feel that marking a queen is a helpful way for you not only to find her, but to know if you still have the same queen.

In lesson 34 we demonstrated how to use a marking tube. But watch the video below as I show you how to mark a queen by holding her. First you pick her off the comb by her wings. Hold the tip of your index finger near her legs and she will hold on with her legs. Then, bring your thumb up and hold her by a couple of legs. We exclusively use this field approach to marking our queens. My video is a bit out of focus, but you can get the idea. Click on the image below to watch the video. If you are viewing this lesson within your Email program, you may not be able to view the video. If that's the case, then you'll need to read this lesson from our website at: http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com

For those of you who will sell your queens and ship them to your customers, you will want to make up your own cage candy. I just made a batch here. It is tricky, and you need to experiment. You use powdered sugar and a special syrup that you buy at most beekeeping places. Your mix cannot be too hard or the bees cannot eat through it to release the queen. But, if it is too runny, it can warm up and drip onto the queen and cause her to perish. So practice with the right mixture. When you think it is right, ship and queen to a friend or your brother to be sure it stays the right consistency when mailed.

Well, we've had a hard day grafting queens, but the day is over and you did a great job. You grafted, raised your queens, marked them, made candy for their cages and shipped them out. Now we can sit back in our lawn chair and sip on a nice glass of iced tea, sweet tea of course with lemon and look at our bee yard of mating nucs and ponder great philosophical questions like why does a smoker always work better when you don't need it any more?

Until the next lesson, BEE-have yourself!

David & Sheri Burns

Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

217-427-2678

www. honeybeesonline.com

Lesson 53: Queen Rearing Made Simple

There's never a dull moment here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Hi! We are David & Sheri Burns and bees are our business. We live in East Central Illinois and our entire family is involved in our honey bee operation. We manufacture and sell beekeeping woodenware and we always appreciate your business. We also sell everything related to beekeeping and always welcome your business.
The primary goal of our business is to give glory to the LORD Jesus Christ through our business. The Bible says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:17). So whether we are building hives for customers, making up nucs, raising queens or answering the phones, we do it all in a honorable way that would give glory to the LORD.

The last few weeks has been a whirlwind of activity. Last Friday we had another successful class here at our honey bee farm. We had 17 students who came to learn about raising queens. This class was in conjunction with the Illinois Queen Initiative, which is a work where several of us are hoping to produce queens that are more acclimated to the climate here in the mid-west. Dr. Joe Latshaw is a commercial queen breeder and he came and held a workshop at our farm and the next day presented the same workshop to another group in Chicago.

Our store/lab was full of eager beekeepers wanting to learn the fine art of raising queens. During the morning Joe gave great detailed presentations on just how to raise queens. Joe holds a Ph.D and also teaches at Ohio State University in Columbus in Ohio. He has worked bees almost all his life and has studied and worked along side the most well-known entomologist. He has become my main mentor for understanding the art of raising queens. Joe has made himself accessible to me whenever I have any questions about queens. He's a true gentleman, friend and excellent beekeeper. His knowledge, experience and wisdom in raising queens is superior.

I highly recommend Joe to other beekeeping associations who would like a special speaker. Joe's website is: www.latshawapiaries.com

After a full morning of presentations on the details of raising queens, we broke for lunch. We try to make our classes and workshops as comfortable and professional as possible, so we had a tent company bring in a nice size tent so that we could enjoy lunch outside. Again, during the lunch break, beekeepers continued to pick Joe's brain as well as talking to each other about failures and successes in beekeeping. It was a nice day, though a bit windy.

I enjoyed meeting beekeepers from around the state of Illinois and hearing about their special techniques of beekeeping. My wife Sheri is such a hard worker around our honey bee farm. She put the entire day together for me. She made sure our room was configured properly for the class as well as making sure lunch was brought in on time.
For the last few weeks Sheri has installed packages, fed bees, answered the phone calls from our customers, helped packaged hives, data entry, taxes, Internet orders and the list goes on!
Even yesterday Sheri was on the four wheeler running up and down the apiary feeding the bees. I am so blessed to have a help-mate like Sheri! Last week I needed to take a trip down to Kentucky to pick up a trailer load of beekeeping supplies. Sheri jumped in the truck with me and our little youngest son Christian and we enjoyed a two day trip down for supplies. Thanks Sheri!
In the afternoon of our class with Joe, I worked to prepare a starter nuc and gathered up 5 frames of larvae so the students could practice grafting.
With Chinese grafting tools in hand, flashlights, magnifying glasses in the other hand, students when to work, selecting the perfect aged larva and transferring them over into queen cell cups I had made earlier in the morning. Students helped each other and Joe was there showing each student the art of grafting. This was a great hands on opportunity.

You can read all the books you can get your hands on, but until someone walks along with you, somethings are difficult to grasp.

LESSON 52: QUEEN REARING MADE SIMPLE
I have noticed that most beekeepers feel that raising queens is complicated and mysterious. I say that because I hear so many beekeepers say they are buying different types of "systems" for raising queens. These systems do work, but in my opinion there is much more control over raising queens through grafting than using systems. Besides, I like hands-on experience.
Here I am standing in David Miksa's apiary among his finishing colonies where he raises his famous queens. I told you that I visited with David Miksa. He and his operation was featured in the May edition of the American Bee Journal. It was a great article! Having seen his operation and now having read about it too, I am very pleased with his queens. I am incorporating several of his techniques into my queen rearing operation. And, of course, I'm using some of his stock in my yards for breeding as well. He has some very nice and very productive queens. I visited a hive two years ago that was headed up by a Miksa queen and I was impressed! We placed David Miksa's queens in 200+ packages, the ones that were picked up from our farm.
Raising your own queens can be very rewarding as well as save you money and time. I think every beekeeper should have a 5 frame nuc with an extra queen in there as a backup emergency replacement. Or if you want to make splits then you can raise your own queens to increase your hive count.
So let me give you a brief rundown on how to raise your own queens.
Create the perfect 5 frame queenless starter nuc. The nuc should consist of:
-One frame of honey
-One frame of pollen
-2 Frames of nurse Bees under 16 days old
Leave it queenless for at least 2 hours, but not too long or they might start raising their own queen if there are eggs present, which there should NOT be.
The starter nuc must not have any open brood so that the nurse bees can give all their resources to the cell cups. And this 5 frame nuc must be severely overcrowded with nurse bees,
completely blocked off and kept in a cool, dark place for the 24-36 hours they start the cups. When I make up my starter nucs, I leave an opening to place my queen cell frame into the nuc. I like to close off my nucs so that the bees stay in for the 24-36 hour duration.
The nuc should not have any open larvae. I want my nurse bees to only care for the grafted queen cups. The goal is to make LARGE size queens and to do this, I need copious amounts of royal jelly in each cup. So the bees in the starter nuc feed the queen cells. Because this hive only has nurse bees primarily, I close it off. Nurse bees do not need to fly out, so I close it off and keep it in a cool place for the 24-36 hour duration. Because I usually graft between 30-40 cell cups, I have to move this frame out to a larger hive that can continue doing what this starter hive started.


After 24-36 hours in the starter nuc, transfer cells into a queenright finishing hive.

The finishing hive must be very strong with two deep hive bodies with the queen in
the bottom hive body below a queen excluder. Leave the cells there until 8-10 days
old. Then, on day 8-10, transfer the cells into a queenless mating nuc. The mating nuc can be anywhere from a complete large hive that is queen less down to a mini-mating nuc with only 2 or three mini-frames.
It works best to transfer the 10 day old queen cell into a queenless nuc on day 10. Bees always accept a queen cell, much better than an emerged virgin queen in a cage.

When I graft, I make my own queen cups from my wax that I know is chemical free. Then, I attach the cups with wax and then I place large amounts of wax on the bar so the bees can use my wax to continue to draw out the queen cells.

I also make my own frames and cell bars. I dip my wax after melting it in a large electric pan that I bought at Wal-mart for $50.

I place my graft into a queen cell cup frame that I've just made up myself. They are easy to make by modifying a deep frame . The one in the picture, of course, is upside down. Don't worry, when you flip it over the larvae will not fall out. They are sticky and stay put. Also, you really do not have to worry about temperature when they are this young, 1-2 days old. Notice I graft with several layers of wet paper towels because the larvae do need to remain moist.

The grafting technique must be hands-on. For example the larva must only breathe on one side when they are this young. Therefore, you must place them in the new queen cell with that same side up. If you flip it over, they will suffocate because they are not yet breathing on both sides.

Then I go out to my bee yards and transfer the 10 day old cells into queenless mating nucs. I mainly use 5 frame nucs with deep size frames or 3 frame nucs with deep size frames. As you can see, these nucs make nice chairs too when working down the line. You can click on any of these images for a larger view. I work my bees with only a hat and veil because my bees are gentle and I hate wearing gloves. Though I do not have to wear a hat and veil, I feel it is essential to protect the eyes from stings. I never want to take a chance, nor should you.

The success of the beekeeper will be greatly increased by his or her ability to raise their own queens.

That's all until next time! If you'd like to contact us, please give us a call or email us. Here is our contact information:

GENERAL PHONE: 217-427-2678
QUESTION LINE: v217-427-2430
EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com
WEBSITE: www.honeybeesonline.com


Bee-have yourself!
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

Lesson 52: Packages, Nucs, Splits and a Trip to Florida

APRIL 2009:
 
Hello From Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We're David & Sheri Burns, working hard to encourage more and more people to become beekeepers!

It's been very busy around our bee farm the last few weeks. In addition to keeping up with the hive woodenware demand, we are working hard to make sure all the packages get delivered on time. And last weekend was a huge success. Beekeeper after beekeeper kept driving in and picking up packages and equipment, anxiously anticipating getting started keeping bees. I was totally exhausted from my trip down to the Orlando Florida area, but it energized me to meet so many new beekeepers.

It was a pleasure to spend 4 packed days with Larry. Larry is a Renaissance man. He has a broad intellectual interest in art, music, and has many other interests such as Persian rugs. But bees are his business and he knows the business of beekeeping. Larry is well liked and respected throughout his community in Florida and Wisconsin. He's a true gentleman and has supplied our local bee club with packages year after year.

Here's a video I took on my cell phone of us working 400 hives, shaking bees for our customers outside of Orlando. The weather was perfect and we found the bees to be very populous and healthy here in this common orange grove. Huge swarms would often collect on the Orange trees.

I also met another well known beekeeper in Florida, David Miksa. David has been a queen breeder forever. Miksa is on the right. We visited his operation to purchase queens for the packages. He had the queens all ready when we arrived. David's queens are well sought out by the beekeeping community. The European Discovery channel did a documentary of David's operation a few years ago. David has a excellent grasp of beekeeping and raising queens. Here's a few pictures we took while visiting David Miska.

David's hives are nestled under those tall, Florida Eucalyptus trees. David's family works along side of him and they have an efficient operation in a beautiful setting.

It was nice being in Florida, soaking up all the nice, warm weather! But, the day finally came when we had to load up all the packages and head north, back to our honey bee farm, knowing that customers would be waiting to receive the packages. So, we loaded them up and headed north, north through half of Florida, all the way through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and finally into Illinois. It's a long trip. And with bees as precious cargo, stops were kept to a minimal for the 20 hour drive. Larry, Henry and myself drove the truck back, each taking turns so others could get some rest.
Once we arrived home with all the packages, customers began arriving to pick them up. Most brought pickup trucks, a few brought cars, but the best one was Charlie, a good customer of ours, who put 20 packages in the trunk of his Cadillac!
Charlie is expanding his hives from last year, so he's an old pro. But many customers who picked up packages were new to beekeeping and picking up their package was very exciting for them. Most seemed overwhelmed at even seeing a package for the first time.

NOW FOR TODAY'S LESSON

We are now making splits and nucs. The weather appears to have broken for us. In fact, many beekeepers are reporting hives that are already swarming, so it is important to split hives to help cut down on the swarming tendency. It may not prevent all swarming, but some.

To make a split, it is best to pull out 3-5 frames from the strong hive. These frames should be of brood in various stages with bees on the frames. Find the queen and keep her in the main hive and place a mated, new queen in the split. It is helpful to place the split a few miles away so that the foragers don't return to the old hive. Or you can swap locations of the new split with the old hive which floods the new smaller split with foragers. We often make splits without worrying about moving them 3 miles away. Usually, the split has bees that are about to become foragers anyway so the force is not reduced that much for too long.

Before we started raising queens, we would let the split or the old hive raise a queen, which ever one didn't have one. But now, we realize that we can save a few weeks of waiting for the queen to lay by placing a laying queen in the split.

Some have asked us what to do if the weather is poor when a package needs installed. It is important to install the package as soon as possible. Most packages can last 5-6 days with the can of food inside, but who can be sure. So I would recommend installing the package the same day you receive it. BUT WHAT IF IT IS RAINING? If it is raining, install your package under a porch or overhang. Do not let your queen get wet from the rain. The bees really should not be rained on. Once installed, you can cover it and carry it to it's location.

I installed packages last week in the cold rain, hail and lightning. So cowboy up and get-er done. What we want is to get the queen released as soon as possible. She is taken care of in the cage, but not as well as if she was out and about. If you want to take a chance and wait a day or two for better weather, keep your bees in a dark place around 50-60 degrees and spray them with 1:1 sugar water lightly a couple of times a day. Be careful not to spray the queen cage if she is visible.

If it is going to be below freezing after you install your package you should worry...I do. Namely because I have lost packages to those sudden cold snaps at night. If you only have a few, and you have a strong back, seal them off and move them into a garage or area that will stay between 35-50 degrees. Then, take them back in the morning when the temperature rises above 37. Be careful in trying to put a heat pad or lamp around the hive. You can easily overheat them or burn your hive and house down. Be careful! That's why we never like to ship packages until the very end or first week of May.

Also, those of you calling in for questions, please be patient because this is the time of the year when we work away from the phone most of the day. Leave a short message and we'll get back to you in 48 hours. Thanks for understanding.

That's all for now. Enjoy your bees.

Until next time, BEE-have yourself.

David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

217-427-2678

http://www.honeybeesonline.com/

EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com