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February in the Hive

 

We’re not over the hump of winter just yet! It’s best for bee keepers to hold off on getting back into their hives until March, or whenever warm weather settles in for the season. Once the temperature has risen to around 50 degrees and you’ve seen bees taking flight, you can begin checks; try to keep them brief, 30 seconds or less, so as not to disturb the bees as they begin to properly wake up.

Honey stores should be at their lowest at this point in the season. The easy way to find out about the honey stores is to go to the rear of the hive and slide your hand under the bottom board and lift gently. If it’s really heavy, then the hive has honey stores remaining in the hive. If it’s light, then you should provide food immediately; you can use dry sugar, fondant, or a candy board, or replace empty combs with combs of capped honey.

It won’t be much longer before spring is in full swing! If you’re preparing to order new batches of bees this upcoming season, make sure you check out our previous blog post about the bee varieties we have to offer!

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No Bad Bees

 

Even though the blustery winter weather is upon us, it’s not too early to think spring. And with spring, comes bees!  If you’re thinking about purchasing a new batch of bees, Great Lakes Bee Company offers different types of honey bees to choose from, each with their own unique benefits. Let’s go through the types of bees we offer, and you can decide which is right for you!

Italian Honeybee

  • These are some of the most widely used race of honey bees. They are known for their prolific brood cycles and production, gentle nature, and their reluctance to swarm. They are also excellent foragers and are known for being strong comb builders. However, this Italian breed consume resources at a rapid pace due to their long brood cycles, and they are notorious for robbing the reserves of weaker or neighboring hives. Italian honey bees also tend to have more difficulty with pests and are more prone to collapse because of this. Despite that, the Italian honeybee is still used by both novice and experienced beekeepers alike.

Carniolan Bee

  • Another popular bee among novices, the Carniolan bee is favored for their docile nature. Carniolan bees are also renowned for their long tongues, which help them pollinate crops like clover, meaning they have more sources of nutrition for the colony than the traditional strain of honey bee stock, and because of their origin in central and Eastern Europe, Carniolan bees are best at foraging in colder climates. Carniolan honeybees are also some of the most efficient workers, due to their ability to adjust worker population relative to nectar availability, creating periods of high nectar with high worker population. This creates large quantities of honey and pollen during those periods.

Saskatraz Honeybee

  • Saskatraz bees are a newer addition to the beekeeping world, a recently developed breed where scientists aimed to create a honeybee breed with strong resistance to pests and diseases. More recently, Saskatraz honeybees have undergone more selective breeding processes to try and increase stability of the varroa tolerant trait. Due to their highly selective breeding process, Saskatraz bees are harder to acquire than other breeds of honeybee. The specificity of their foraging behaviors may affect their honey production in certain environments, meaning supplemental feeding may be necessary. You can read more about this new breed on OHBees!

Golden West Honeybee

  • The Golden West Bees originated in the California foothills, where a family of beekeepers began to selectively breed their bees when they noticed one of their hives were able to completely avoid mite infestation. From this breeding, Golden West queens have become notable for colonies that are very gentle and healthy, exhibited above average honey production, and proved strong for almond pollination, on top of their increased mite resistance.

Now that you know a little more about the different honeybees we offer, head on over to our online shop to explore your options for the upcoming season! Keep in mind that there are no bad bees, and a flexible beekeeper who has careful consideration of their hives will often have the best results!

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January in the Hive

 

Entering the new year with even colder temperatures can be nerve-wracking for any beekeeper. Here are some tips for checking on your bees without too much disturbance to the hive:

  • If there is snow on the ground, check the areas around your hive. There may be brown spots signaling that the bees have recently had the strength to fly outside and relieve themselves. There may be visible dead bees outside, particularly in areas with heavy snowfall, but this should not be cause for alarm.
  • The easiest way to check on your bees from outside the hive is to listen to them. Stand, or kneel, at the corner of a hive. Set your shoulder against one surface and bend your neck so your ear is flat against the hive body, just around the corner. Other keepers have found success listening through the walls of their hive with a stethoscope. You should be able to hear the familiar buzzing of your bees. Even a faint whisper is a good sign of life.
  • If you discover that your bees did not survive over winter, don’t be discouraged! Over wintering bees in cold climate is challenging, especially with temperature fluctuations and length of the winter temperatures. When warmer weather comes, take time to inspect the hive to determine what caused the colony to die; Beekeeping Made Simple’s Hive Autopsy may help figure this out. Take steps to clean equipment, learn, treat neighboring hives if needed, etc.
  • Some dead bees may have piled up by the entrance. This is normal for the wintertime as morgue bees may not risk venturing outside to dispose of the dead. You can help them by using a long, flat stick or metal rod to sweep out the dead bodies from the entrance and from along the sides and corners of the hives.
  • You can also check the weight of your colony. In January, it should still feel heavy compared to their fall weight, because bees do not use up much of their honey in the early winter. If your hive feels too light, you can provide extra food for your bees, like loose sugar or fondant. However, once you start feeding you may encourage the bees to move upwards, prematurely leaving some stores behind. If you provide supplemental feed, keep doing it regularly until the bees can forage again.

 

 

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December in the Hive

 

Winter should be a quiet time for your bees. Take a look at our November In The Hive blog for any last-minute preparation you may be doing to prepare your bees for cold weather. You should avoid disturbing the beehive too much during this time, but occasional checks can help you identify issues early.

Keep your eyes out for signs of disease, pests or deceased bees in or around the hives entrance. If you can hear a quiet hum outside of your hive, that is a good sign that your bees are actively maintaining their temperature.

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November in the Hive

 

You should already be preparing your hives for colder weather by providing plenty of food for your bees and insulating the hive, but November means your bees may be entering dormancy.

A strong hive won’t need much help feeding during the winter. To know how much assistance your bees may need to keep their nutrition up, look at their stores of honey. If the honey has been recently depleted or the bees have simply not produced enough, it may be time to add sugar, fondant, or liquid feed to the mix before it gets too cold.

You can also prepare for the cold by providing wind-breaks, such as hay bales or scrap metal, to protect your hives from harsh wind. But be careful not to shade the hive, as the bees will be needing as much warmth and sunlight as they can get.

Now is the time to start preparing for next year! Take stock of what kind of equipment you’ll need, such as more hives, new foundations, or more specialized tools. We have a variety of bee equipment and hive tools available for purchase online at Great Lakes Bee Co.! You can also spend the extra time this winter not tending to your bees by studying up on bees and beekeeping. Check out this selection of books recommended by the Best Bees Company!

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Month In the Hive – January

 

Now that the holidays are behind us, it’s time to turn our minds back on bees, which we’ve all probably forgotten about during the holiday hustle and bustle.

Since snow and bitter cold temperatures have moved in, our concern is whether our bees have enough food. Fortunately, bees are super conservative with their winter stores, so a well-stocked hive going into winter should have ample resources to make it through spring. The hives of greatest concern are the ones that a bit light, despite our fall feeding, going into winter. If you ask an old-school beekeeper, they will tell you that you just need to lift the back of the hive and if it takes more than two fingers then the bees are good. The idea is that you can tell just by lifting it. We might argue that this only works if you have experience judging the weight by lifting hives. Also, everyone has different strengths. So, we might be able to lift a hive with plenty of stores with two fingers and someone else might not be able to lift a starving hive with two fingers.

Is there a better way to judge the stores in the hive? To judge the stores without lifting, pop the outer cover and see if you can see bees at the top of the hive through the hole in your inner cover. Pick a day that is around the mid-30 degrees with little wind and precipitation. If you see your bees have moved up to cover new resources, then they are burning through resources and might need some supplemental feed. If your bees are boiling through the hole in the inner cover, then they are probably pretty close, if not out of food. This only works if you are wintering double deep hives because a single deep hive will not have enough space for the bees to be below the stores. If you can’t see any activity or you are wintering single deep hives, pop the inner cover and shine a light down the frames. You will be able to see the resources and where your bees are in the hive. Sometimes the cluster will move to the side of the hive that gets sun on short winter days and are not visible through the inner cover.

We all know there will be an uproar from beekeepers about opening hives in winter. Although we want to minimize interruptions to our hives in winter, the bees are not adversely affected by brief openings – and may starve without intervention. Bees warm their cluster to roughly 60 degrees unless they have brood then they maintain the temperature around 90 degrees. Notice the cluster temperature is maintained, the rest of the hive is only slightly warmer than outside temperatures. We should not be pulling frames, but as long as our interruptions are brief the bees will barely notice our intrusions.

Now that we have determined we need to provide some supplemental feed, how do we get in in the hive in a way the bees can use it? Liquid feed is out of the question, it will freeze and any bees that fall into it will never make it out. If a super with honey is available, adding the entire super box to the hive is a good option. Some like to make up fondant and place it over the cluster. Others like to use the Mountain Camp Method of feeding. The Mountain Camp Method is by far the easiest way to feed your bee in winter. This method can be done several ways, but can be achieved by simply pouring dry sugar on the inner cover, adding a spacer (empty supper box), then outer cover. This creates a space for the feed and the bees can come up as needed. Some remove the inner cover, place a piece of newspaper with small holes over the cluster, pour the dry sugar on top, add a spacer, and then return the covers.

However you choose to provide for your bees, these quick checks can be the difference for your bees. All hives should be checked every few weeks. One would be surprised at how quickly bees consume resources. A heavy hive today can burn through a super of resources in a few weeks if the conditions are right. On warmer days, bees consume more resources when flying. Keep this in mind as faults springs come and go. Many colonies that have made it through winter struggle in spring waiting for the trees and flowers to bloom.

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Michigan Radio: ‘Bee-ing More Observant’ at Great Lakes Bee Co. Bee Pickup Event

Michigan Radio reporter Dustin Dwyer joined the Great Lakes Bee Co. for the second day of bee pickups this year to learn more about these buzzing pollinators and how they are helping the environment.

“When you get a nuc – a 9-frame nuc – you’re getting a regular hive box that you can use in your yard and they’re filled with bees,” Great Lakes Bee Company Owner Genji Leclair told Dwyer during the annual event. “There’s probably some honey in there, a queen, and baby bees being born – they’re so cute.”

The country’s agriculture depends on bees as farmers need them to pollinate crops, such as blueberries, apples, peaches, cherries, and almonds. Sarah Szymczyk and her family were among the many backyard beekeepers who attended GLBC’s annual spring bee pickup, bringing home thousands of bees inside their nuc.

“Our goal in life is to be sustainable living – being able to grow our own food and live in a space that we don’t depend on any other market and bees is the way to that,” she told Michigan Radio. “You have to have food and bees give you food.”

Listen to Michigan Radio’s full podcast about GLBC’s annual bee pickup: “Bee-ing More Observant.”

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Hit the Road Jack … Go Pollinate Those Almonds!

In January and February, a majority of our honey bees buzz into cargo trucks to make the cross-country voyage to California for the state’s yearly almond pollination. The almond industry is big business in California, producing over 80% of the world’s almonds.

More than 2 million hives from Michigan and other states are trucked into California to pollinate the state’s growing almond trees because the “Golden State” alone doesn’t have sufficient bee population for pollination.

Once the bees land in California, they’re dispersed to more than 7,600 farms where they’ll pollinate the almond trees from February to March.

During that time each year, almond tree buds burst into light pink and white blooms in preparation for pollination. As the trees blossom, honey bees forage for pollen and nectar in the orchard. When the bees move from tree to tree, they pollinate almond blossoms along the way. Each fertilized flower will grow into an almond.

When almond pollinating season ends in California, our bees often travel to Georgia, where they’ll pollinate crops there and make honey before returning to their West Michigan home in May.

We trust our bees are enjoying the warm sunshine in California and look forward to their return home this spring!

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Month in the Hive – December

 

Michigan bee hives will be “chilling out” this winter as they wait for the upcoming spring season. For beekeepers, there’s not much to do for your bees over the next couple months. No need to peek on your bee colony – opening the hive risks the escape of warm air. It’s time to just let the bees be.

While bees don’t actually hibernate during the winter months, they do cluster tightly together to stay warm in the hive. Beekeepers may see their bee colony die during Michigan’s cold winter. This is okay. If this happens to you, don’t be embarrassed. It is inevitable that some bee colonies just can’t survive the cold weather. If you’ve already winterized your hives, there isn’t anything else you can do to help them until the weather starts to thaw out in late winter. Until then, enjoy the holidays and the coziness that winter brings. If you want to get a head start preparing for the upcoming apiary season, here are a few ideas:

  • Join a local bee club, attend club meetings and learn from others about being an apiarian or share your knowledge with others.
  • Spruce up your equipment: Is your equipment in need of repairs? Now is a good time to take inventory of your bee equipment and make any necessary repairs or replace old or broken equipment. If you need new equipment, we recommend Dadant for all your beekeeping supplies.
  • Read up about bees and the apiary culture: On a snowy day or night, curl up with a blanket and a cup of tea (mixed with our delicious Hasselman’s Honey, of course) and immerse yourself in the world of bees.

A few of our favorites:

For Newbies

For Practical Beekeeping

For the Bee Enthusiast

For Continued Learning

For History Buffs

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Month in the Hive – October

 

Autumn’s cool weather is settling in, which means it’s time for West Michigan beekeepers to maintain their beehives throughout the fall months and begin the winterizing process.

Bees residing in regions that accumulate more snow and tend to experience longer winters, like West Michigan, will need food to survive the upcoming cold winter months. For area beekeepers, we recommend taking off supers – leaving single or double deeps as the bees will naturally gravitate to the upper box.

Since bees keep the hive toasty and warm during the winter, with temps reaching over 90 degrees, condensation will collect inside, which is deadly for bees. Here are a few tricks to keep your bees snug during the winter without the deadly condensation.

1: Add a firing strip under the back side of your hive to tilt the box forward slightly and encourage condensation to drip down the inner front box to the bottom board and not on the bees.

2: Be sure the hive is ventilated properly. Add a riser on top to make room for adding food patties – those can go right on top of your frames if they are solid. We also suggest adding a piece of wax or parchment paper down first to keep any of the food from dripping or dropping. The bees will be fine eating through it or going around it for their food.

3. Add a quilt box with some wood shavings or other absorbent material on top of your riser/food to help control the moisture. We recommend putting the inner and outer cover back on and adding an extra brick on top to keep the top secure. Some beekeepers wrap their hives in roofing paper or add a manufactured hive wrap or insulation. Just be careful not to make it too warm or air tight, which causes the condensation. As long as your hive is well ventilated, you should be all good.

4. Turn your entrance reducer up to the smallest opening that can be used. Because many bees often die throughout the winter, you don’t want the dead bees blocking the entrance. Next, add a mouse guard to keep those cute, but destructive creatures out of the hive.


5. Inspect your bees. This may sound like a simple task, but it is an important one for beekeepers in October. As you examine your beehive, you can determine what condition your bees are in and whether they’re prepared for the winter ahead.

6. Most importantly: Enjoy your honey harvest and share your makings!

Happy (soon-to-be) Winter!