HANDLING AND PREPARATION OF COLONIES STORED INDOORS: THE "INS" AND "OUTS"
By Brandon Hopkins
"INS"
While this publication is intended to provide some information on storage conditions and information on the buildings used for storing bees; that information and management is relatively very simple compared to the months of work preparing colonies before placing the hives in a building.
Commercial beekeepers who are accustomed to transporting colonies to warmer climates for winter storage might be used to having the time and ability to “fix” colonies during this period. Some operations reportedly use the time when colonies are in California holding yards to combine weak colonies, feed light hives, feed protein supplement to maintain brood production, treat for Varroa mites. None of these approaches are options if colonies are bound for indoor storage.
IF they are needing to go into the building in November with good weight, young healthy bees, and low Varroa levels; those conditions need to be considered months ahead of closing the doors on them in October or November. The most critical factors for success with storing bees indoors are the actions and decisions made in August and September. Decisions on when to pull honey affect colony weight and when Varroa treatments can occur. September and October can provide time for adding weight but October is too late to produce the needed “healthy young bees”. Most “winter bees” (the bees needed to survive 4-5 months) are produced in September or even August. This means you don’t want your winter bees parasitized by Varroa mites and infected with viruses during larval development. To get those healthy young winter bees, colonies need good healthy queens combined with low Varroa levels. If colonies need to be fed it should be done early enough so the weather allows colonies to consume any protein supplement and/or take the syrup and remove excess moisture from honey stores.
August-September – pull honey, treat mites, fix queen issues, feed
October – feed or put bees in storage
While this publication is intended to provide some information on storage conditions and information on the buildings used for storing bees; that information and management is relatively very simple compared to the months of work preparing colonies before placing the hives in a building.
Commercial beekeepers who are accustomed to transporting colonies to warmer climates for winter storage might be used to having the time and ability to “fix” colonies during this period. Some operations reportedly use the time when colonies are in California holding yards to combine weak colonies, feed light hives, feed protein supplement to maintain brood production, treat for Varroa mites. None of these approaches are options if colonies are bound for indoor storage.
IF they are needing to go into the building in November with good weight, young healthy bees, and low Varroa levels; those conditions need to be considered months ahead of closing the doors on them in October or November. The most critical factors for success with storing bees indoors are the actions and decisions made in August and September. Decisions on when to pull honey affect colony weight and when Varroa treatments can occur. September and October can provide time for adding weight but October is too late to produce the needed “healthy young bees”. Most “winter bees” (the bees needed to survive 4-5 months) are produced in September or even August. This means you don’t want your winter bees parasitized by Varroa mites and infected with viruses during larval development. To get those healthy young winter bees, colonies need good healthy queens combined with low Varroa levels. If colonies need to be fed it should be done early enough so the weather allows colonies to consume any protein supplement and/or take the syrup and remove excess moisture from honey stores.
August-September – pull honey, treat mites, fix queen issues, feed
October – feed or put bees in storage
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OUTS"
When colonies come out of storage they are especially eager to fly. They have been unable to defecate for months. There is a considerable amount of bee flight the first opportunity they have to fly. It is important to transport and load colonies out during the night and or in cold conditions. The potential for the loss of bees during transportation is great if they are provided conditions for flight. Research looking at the drifting of bees following indoor storage found there were significant losses in colonies placed in the field during daylight hours compared to colonies unloaded during the night (Jay and Harris 1979). They found the rate of drifting and the loss of bees to be greatest on the first day. It is widely reported that bees have a greater tendency to drift when colonies are set in rows in open spaces. It might be expected that the tendency to drift is exaggerated after indoor storage. Therefore, it is beneficial to take greater precautions to minimize the potential for drifting. This includes: pallets should be spaced out as far as possible, pallets not placed in straight rows, hive entrances oriented randomly, utilize smaller numbers of hives per location, place pallets in circular formations, etc. Generally, colonies coming out of storage have much less brood compared to colonies wintered outdoors. This provides an opportune time to apply a Varroa treatment. Many beekeepers who have been successful at storing bees indoors allow a few days for the colonies to orient once they get on the ground in California and then they start a regiment of Varroa treatment and feeding (syrup and protein). |
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