I hope you and your bees are well.
Aside from April housing “April Fools Day,” it is the month, ready or not, that beekeeping gets into high gear. It is also the beginning in earnest of a guessing game. Should you make splits and when? When will the honey flow begin? What’s happening inside the hive? Is that a swarm cell(s)? Do I need to give them more space? And on and on! Things are starting to bloom which signals the beginning of a minor nectar flow, but don’t be fooled as in April Fools, by the Bradford Pear Tree. They are non-native trees that produce no nectar or pollen useful to our bees. A more reliable indication of an early build up is the arrival of our friends, the hummingbirds, that also usually occurs with the first swarm. In brief, we need to “do things to ensure healthy bees are alive and ready to produce honey.”
On one of those 70-degree days in March, I did an alcohol mite wash and to my surprise got a 4% reading, so I treated. I will test again in April and throughout the coming months. Make sure you don’t get the queen in the test!
I have put up two bait swarm hives. Thomas D. Seeley has written several excellent books that, among other topics, discusses all things regarding catching swarms. In his books, he recommends putting the hives about 15 feet off the ground, but in a recent beekeeping conference, he spoke via zoom, and stated that he no longer does that. I remember him saying that 15 feet is fine, but 6 feet works fine as well. I have also found this to be true. I have several hives that I have rigged up to hoist up into a tree via a rope, and others that I can stand on the ground and lift them onto a stand or affix them to a tree or post. I have actually caught more in the six-foot position and it is a lot easier both getting it up and certainly getting it down. It’s up to you, but by all means stay off a ladder, no swarm is worth falling.
In March, I got my first of the season stings. It is something like a right of passage. I was actually surprised. I was checking each hive for brood and/or evidence of a viable queen, not needing to find the queen, and in moving frames, I carelessly squeezed a worker bee and paid the price. It was a reminder to pay attention. How quickly we forget.
“There are many possible futures out there; we have to work toward the one we desire.”
Claude Nutt