Honey Bee Colony Divide & Swarm Prevention!
Here at Home Orchard Education Center, we have a wonderful honeybee demonstration area.
In April, the HOEC volunteer beekeepers divided colonies from two of our main hive boxes in an attempt to keep them from swarming, and to generate two new colonies.
Here’s a look at the process and challenges, as well as ways you can learn about honeybees in Oregon.
1. First, a frame filled with bees, brood (eggs, larvae, & pupae) and of course - the queen was removed from each hive.
2. These were transferred into two smaller nucleus (nuc) boxes. Each box received one queen.
3. Branches were attached over the opening on each nuc box. This is meant to disorient the foraging bees once they emerge, so they don't fly right back to their old hive.
4. If all goes well, after 2-3 weeks, each of the nuc boxes should contain an established colony ready for new permanent homes.
But what about those original hives? Are they left without a queen?!
Not for long!
Bees in the original hives, sensing there is no longer a queen present, will quickly make emergency queen cells. The first queen to emerge is the winner!
Watch volunteer honeybee keepers Anthony and Mike check a hive for emergency queen cells
After she hatches, she will kill all of the other unhatched queen cells. Then it takes about a week for her to reach the point that she can go out on a mating flight. But if the weather does not co-operate, she can remain unmated or poorly mated and she won't work well as a queen.
This is a serious issue here in (rainy) Oregon.
HAP-BEE EVER AFTER?
For whatever reason, the queen that hatched out in one hive was no longer present a few weeks later. So a new mated queen was brought in from a local honeybee club.
When a queen is added, she goes into the hive in a cage to give the bees some time to accept her. The cage has a "plug" in it made of some type of sugar. It takes the bees time to eat the plug and release the queen. If they "reject" her, they will kill her while she is still in the cage.
Luckily, she was released and accepted! When the HOEC beekeepers last checked, there were frames of capped brood, larvae and eggs. It looked like she was laying well over 1000 eggs a day, and those first bees have started hatching out.
As for the two nuc boxes, both did quite well! One was sold and the other went into the third hive body in the HOEC demo area. All three of the HOEC honeybee hives are now very active. A new "flow" has started with the beginning of the blackberry bloom, which lasts for about three weeks. Blackberry bloom is a major contributor to honey accumulation here in the PNW.
Once that is over we go into what is known as "the dearth", a summer period where there is minimal nectar available for a hive with a lot of bees in it. The queen slows down laying and the population begins to decline. It is a critical period for treating the hive for varroa mites and beginning preparations for winter.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Locally there are several small beekeeping clubs that can help anyone interested in starting up with a hive.
Oregon State Beekeeper Association (ORSBA) will have a display at the Oregon State fair - which is another great way to learn more about bees and see what is happening.
THANK YOU
The Portland Garden Club awarded us a grant to fund our Honey Bee Demonstration Garden.
The structure was built with helping hands from volunteers, interns, Portland Fruit Tree Project Workforce Development trainees and a few staff members from Clackamas Community College.
WE VALUE YOUR INPUT!
Do you have a tip or fun fact to share? Did you read something you think needs to be edited or corrected? Your input helps to further the education of the sustainable food growing community at large. Please email: volunteer@homeorchardeducationcenter.org
If you have enjoyed this post, please consider contributing content or helping out financially if you are in a position to do so. HOEC is a volunteer-driven 501(c)3 non-profit. Any amount helps ❤️