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SUCCESSFUL BEEKEEPING

By Bill Ruzicka PEng. . Inventor of MiteGone® Commercial Bee Breeder in BC. 250-762-8156.

BUYING BEES, TO BE OR NOT TO BE A BEEKEEPER, THAT’S A QUESTION? TO REPLACE LOST BEES, TO MAKE INCREASE, TO START BEEKEEPING IS AN IMPORTANT DECISION. THERE ARE PACKAGES, NUKES, NATURAL SWARMS and ARTIFICIAL SWARMS:

Artificial swarm is a better way to replace bees you lost, or want an increase. It is a full size colony which will produce a full or better crop in the summer when installed in DRAWN DEEP COMB WITH STORES. It eliminates transfer of diseases like AFB. It has over-wintered laying VERNON STOCK QUEENS AND BEES. There is no transfer of equipment, only bees; Queen is laying 2000 eggs a day and will not stop, it must be transferred onto nice clean drawn comb to continue and in 3 days she will have 3 frames of brood and 5 frames of bees; they make the rest of 10 combs ready for her. You start your beekeeping in late May when honey flow is on. I will explain how it is all done on the end of this article in ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. In the late 70's, I bought a 100 hive outfit and went through all the normal sources of acquiring bees (in this article I will share all those ways with you). The operation only had 20 live colonies and a lot of old equipment of every size, Imagine that each bottom board had its own entrance reducer of different length, you sat and tried them until one fit. That did not go too well with my education. So over the summer and winter I sorted every thing, standardized and fixed what was usable. On advice from Leo Fuhr I re-queened all 20 colonies with Vernon stock Queens and ensured they were well stocked for winter to be able to do a lot of splits. Lesson 1: Splits and hive arrangements. I wintered all 20 colonies in 2 rows side to side, back to back 2 high in one gigantic winter wrap of insulation backed up by black paper. That taught me a lesson in drifting. In spring the outside hives of rows were bummers, the inside in the middle were pure boys needing a lot of boost. We changed them into groups of 4 arranged in a circle in April and in late May we were able to split them to 50 honey producing hives. Lesson to learn: I adapted this model to all my yards as it eliminates drifting.

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Lesson 2: Packages and equipment. This was in the late 70's when packages were typical Canadian beekeeping. Everybody in the north after first frost in late August gassed their bees, extracted all honey and sorted equipment to receive packages in spring. Each year Ernie Fuhr took his truck in late March and went to California to bring 2500 packages 2000 for him and 500 for sale, and he stopped at his dad and mom in Vernon. That is where I got my first 50 packages and installed them on well prepared boxes with drawn comb and gallon feeders full of feed on top. They took off nicely and produced honey.

Therefore I decided to do the same next year but did not have much drawn comb but a lot of foundations I made. Over the winter I fed the same way and than relied on honey flow. In mid August they were just about on 4-5 frames I learned that it takes 7 Lbs of honey to create one lb of wax. Doing a lot of feeding from mid-August till the end of September brought them to 6-8 frames and with the inner feeder full I set them on top of 2 high colonies packed in 4 packs made of plywood and 1” corolite walls and 3 1/2 ‘ fiberglass insulation in plastic bags to winter. I learned how to winter small colonies and how much it cost to draw foundation. Lesson to learn: Do not put the packages on foundation only. Unless YOU provide plenty of heavy feed 16 kg sugar into 20 liters of finished syrup! No 20 L of water Lesson 3: Nukes and courses. I did my share of nukes when I was reducing from 500 to 280. It was a nice way to sell the surplus equipment. But in the late 80's when the first mites came and borders were closed, starting the BC bee breeding industry my accounting mind could not justify making and selling nukes; Why? In the central Okanagan in bush on non-irrigated lands, to make and draw the perfect brood frame cost me in that time, $10 so 4 frames = $ 40. Selling nukes at that time for $45 did not make much sense so I developed Artificial Swarms, we will return to them at the end of this article. But now back to nukes at $200+ and your CHOICES; If you are just starting with all new equipment and foundation only; You better be prepared to provide plenty of heavy feed 16 kg sugar into 20 liters of finished syrup not 20 L of water. Next YOU have to find a reliable source; Talk and ask many questions of all people you meet and went that way before you. COURSES: You can take my course; TO BE OR NOT TO BE A BEEKEEPER THAT’S A QUESTION? It costs $30 and is done on line and on Phone. It will lead you through the hoops, do's and don'ts before you spend thousands of dollars to find out if for one or two of many reasons you are NOT TO BE A BEEKEEPER. It cost you $30 probably wis est money you ever spent. COLLEDGE OR COMMUNITY COURSES are the way we pay for our freedom: any cotton picking Harry can come and decide to put up courses on bees; he does not have any ACREDITATION. So ask who is he /she and if that person has certification as a beginner instructor by the BC honey producers Association. I participated with Lance Cuthill in creation

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of it. It may not be the best in the world but it insures that no idiot teaches, wrong ideas are not taught, or personal profit achieved, from sale of bad Nukes and Queens. Now back to nukes. NUKES: 3 FRAMES IN APRIL OR 4 FRAMES IN LATE MAY. A-Indisputably the best are nukes made after pollination from over-wintered hives with queens reared in June of last year .With proper feed or honey flow they will draw foundation and produce honey. B-Nukes with Imported Queens are quite common and work, they are a little slower in development as young queens may require time to swing into full production. Some queens may fail, but those who survive summer and have full size colonies in August with proper treatments, sufficient winter stores and winter packing will be good for next year. ATTENTION: the industrially-produced queens will more likely be sisters’ so plan on setting up re-queening in late May from stock from a reputable local bee-breeder. C- Nukes with early mated Queens are also common but may have badly mated queens; the reason is not enough mature drones in April or early May. (I tried for several years to run two queens’ colonies rearing extra units on top; only in the first year by mid May I had 140 mated queens out of 200. This miracle never happened again and some ran out of sperm and became drone layers.) This may happen on both B & C nukes: Ask the supplier if he will replace Queens if they fail by mid July. D- Nukes by mid July are called Splits. They are usually well developed units with reliable Queens. They will build up to winter and produce honey in the next two years. They will requite re-queening in second summer. Natural SWARMS are great to increase your numbers and Yes the SWARM will do what all

swarms do, build a new home = draw the comb. YOU just have to provide plenty of heavy feed 16 kg sugar into 20 liters of finished syrup not 20 L of water. The Queen prepared herself for the swarm flight by reducing laying eggs for several days until she stop entirely. She can wait until bees build a new house and fully drawn comb to start laying again. On the swarm day the bees gorged themselves with honey and then in a nice afternoon they are off to find new home. Any 3sqf of space will do; your chimney space, under stairs, old car, or box all will do. How to catch them will be another lesson. What I described above does not happen in:

ARTIFICIAL SWARMS Artificial swarm is a better way to replace bees you lost or if you want an increase. It is a full size colony which will produce a full or better crop in the summer when installed in DRAWN DEEP COMB WITH STORES. It eliminates transfer of diseases like AFB. It has over wintered laying VERNON STOCK QUEENS AND BEES. There is no transfer of equipment, only bees; Queen is laying 2000 eggs a day and will not stop, it must be transferred onto nice clean drawn comb to continue and in 3 days she will have 3 frames of brood and 5 frames of bees who will make the remaining 10 combs ready for her. You start your beekeeping in late May when Honey flow is on. In 7 days after you pick up your swarm, you will need a second box on.

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ATTENTION: The difference is that needier Bees or Queen has time to prepare for it or gorge themselves on honey. The eggs are coming out of the queen but in rate of 2000 a day, that’s about one egg in 43 seconds and it will wreck her if she has no place to put it somewhere. On the other hand if you give her place to put it in you will have 3 frames of brood in 3 days. That will need the food: so provide plenty of heavy feed 16 kg sugar into 20 liters of finished syrup not 20 L of water. HOW WE DO IT: First we work with our customers to prepare the SWARM box right. Swarms can be put in any

size equipment but inner feeders only in deep box. On the picture you see my 2 frame feeder capacity 4 liters made 30 years ago, of wood. It also can divide the hive into 2 mating nukes one on each side of it. Now you can buy 2 frame plastic feeders. Put one such feeder against wall. Then two outside combs shod be honey and next to them 2 frames of pollen that leaves you with space in middle for 4 nicest ready to receive eggs frames. The nicer you prepare it, the better results you will have. If you do not have some or none of the above equipment For extra cost we can supply White fully drawn newer used for brood comb, feed, and pollen patties to have the swarm food and comb to laying in to start with. The bottom board is fastening to the swarm box so unit can be carried around without coming apart. The entrance has a full size screen easily removable and installable.

The top of swarm box is covered with carpet or potato sack and telescoping top cover so it is bee sealed for transport to customer designation. On a nice day in late May we remove our hive from the place where it was and put the customer box on its place. We find a queen and transfer it with all bees on her comb into customer box.

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We shake 60%of all bees from all combs into customer box and all field force will return on end of day in it too. The shaken off combs are from 3 shakers put onto fourth hive INCUBATOR to incubate. In 3 days Swarms are checked for brood and queen and in the past, 250 were loaded on 5 ton trucks and left for north or Alberta. All that is left are tall incubators ready to emerge all that brood of 3 hives and in 10 days from first shaking produce second round of Swarms and in the past, 1000 mating 3 frame nukes to rear our new generation of bees. Now we do about 114 nukes with 32-34 Swarms in first round and 12-14 in second.

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HOW WE ELIMINATE TRANSFER OF DISEASES LIKE AFB. You have to know that AFB can be transferred only by disease comb or in guts of bees. We eliminated Comb transfer as there are none to exchange or transfer, a Comb with AFB scales has to be burned. We have to deal with spores in bee’s guts, and that what antibiotics like OXITED or TAILOSIN are for. They do not cure AFB but Prevents young 4-7 days old larva from AFB infection. You have to keep it on hives for 6 weeks, then the bees run out of spores in their guts and you have clean colonies. I knew this 30 years ago. Our government recommends it now as way to save sick colonies and with use of nuclear technology=IROTRON you can use it to save combs too, just burn the comb with scales regardless what anyone says. In our case we must protect the customers from each other and ourselves too. In the past we had 500 customer boxes from several customers in our yards open flying for several days. Regardless of our inspection, the chance of some AFB being missed could not be ignored, as bees fly and drift anywhere. Preventive use of Oxited in powder sugar mix was applied and is still applied today to all customer boxes as well to ours including each incubator. Now I talked long enough, give me a call if you have any questions on: 1-250-762-8156. REFERENCES: In 1988 we ran a 10 “swarm” test. In 1989 100 swarms went to the Peace River area averaging 7 pounds each and they did great. In 1990 John Gates from the BC Apiculture Program ran tests and found this a very workable system. It was originally published in Beesceen April 1991 and republished in 2013 year. J. Ballard 780-957-2533 1991 150 Swarms D. Elias 250-562-1655 1991, 2, 3,4,6,7, 80 Combs of; Bees Brood F. Miedema 780-674-6333 1992,& 6 400 7.3 2.9 Jay De Young 403-362-5416 1993,4 150 7.4 3.1 J. Johnson 250-992-7940 1993,4 20 8.6 3.7 N. Greidanus 780-939-7325 1994 280 8.5 3.2 J. Guerin 403-359-3606 1995 500 8.2 3.5 M. Parady 780-954-2642 1996 50 8.6 2.8 Ch. Alen 403-527-6898 1997 440 8.7 2.9 In 1998 at age of 58 I decided to reduce the operation and sell the equipment in the form of 4 frame nukes. When I got down to 280, we for many years exchanged frames and shipped 450 half Queen-right and half Queen-less with PHILPOTS in Alberta In 2013 We reduced no of 72 singles colonies over-wintered for pollination, and with rising problems with AFB we were back to the method of SWARMS which eliminates AFB transfer.. D. Crumback 250 -254-1876 2013 took the first round of 39 for several years to build up his numbers until 2015 and various locals took the second round of 13. In 2016 all Swarms were sold to many individuals within 100 miles of us. We hope to do the same in 2017.