East Central Iowa Beekeepers Association Minutes
March 14, 2022
(Note: I overlooked an important bit of information supplied by James Miller. He spoke about the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund, which allows private landowners an opportunity to plant some of their property in pollinator plants favorable to butterflies and bees. For more information on this project, please visit Bee and Butterfly Habitat. )
Welcome new members and visitors!
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 by president Floyd Otdoerfer. Floyd began by having everyone introduce themselves, tell a bit about their beekeeping and winter survival if they had bees this past year. Though some experienced significant loss, many had well above 50% survival. Some discussion ensued as to why there were losses and what some did to help keep bees alive. Floyd pointed out that March is a deadly month and food stores need to be closely watched as populations are rapidly increasing and brood production requires more resources. Various methods of feeding were discussed, such as putting sugar on newspaper on top of the frames or making sugar cakes, adding pollen patties, using frame feeders that replace a frame or two, and putting out entrance feeders. It probably is too early for liquid feed above the hive but liquid inside should stay warm enough. Joseph mentioned a method of putting sugar syrup in a plastic bag on top of the frames, which should allow bees to feed when warm enough. If using a frame feeder, be sure to have support for the bees to climb on to minimize drowning. If hives seem low on weight and you aren’t seeing a lot of honey in the top box, add frames from a dead-out or saved honey frames to the hive. It isn’t adviseable to put liquid honey into a frame feeder. Honey can be diluted with water and added, however.
How should hives be reduced in the spring? If supers were put on for extra feed over winter, those should be removed until nectar flow begins. Some keep bees in two deeps, others may add a third or at least a super for extra feed. When to remove wraps in the spring? Some are removing insulation already, since we have an extended warm period coming up. James Miller has removed his already, expecially since he had to move some hives. He also mentioned he has done away with upper entrances, since bees in nature do not typically have them. Floyd pointed out that removing insulation now might result in chilling the brood. Top insulation is important. Hive reversal, Joseph suggested, is good to do around the time dandelions start blooming, When to put supers on? When bees are making new, white wax. Mid-to late May. If it is a new or young hive, don’t rush to put supers on until comb is drawn out fully in the brood boxes. They need to first begin to fill out the frames in the lower boxes. Julia McGuire’s book says when the clovers begin to bloom is a good time to add supers.
Treasurer’s report: We have currently $1148.37 in our treasury. 2022 are now due.
Election of officers: Will Swain was elected vice-president. Jim Davis and Jean Stallman will remain as secretary and treasurer respectively, though each will be willing to step aside if someone would like to assume those responsibilities. Terms will run through March, 2024.
Special thanks to Floyd Otdoerfer for his service a number of years as vice-president and lastly as president.
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| Floyd presenting at our 2021 field day |
News/Events:
Central Iowa Beekeepers are holding a winter seminar Saturday, March 19th at Grimes, Iowa. There is a good list of speakers who will be presenting. CIBA is the largest regional club in the state. Floyd remarked that we have sufficient funds in our treasury to support having members attend. Members who attend and report at our June meeting will be reimbursed the cost of registration.
Earth Expo will be held Sunday, April 3rd at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, south of Iowa City. As in the past several years, we will have a table at the event and sponser a small activity about pollination for children. Public is welcome.
McGuire’s Annual Beekeeping Planner was handed out to members. Thanks to Julia for doing the work to put this together and to make it available freely to club members.
Dave and Mary Lou Cook, former members, are no longer keeping bees. For several years, they have hosted a table at Noelridge Park Easter weekend and Mother’s Day. They have educational materials about bees and typically sold over 100 bottles of honey at these events. They are willing to give the contact information to anyone wanting to take this over. Please contact Mary Lou at 319-364-4449. (Please let me know if you plan to do this so I can follow up with them. We will take their materials for use at our table at the Johnson County fair if no one want to do this.)
Where to buy bees? Paul Gardner is selling packages and will make two runs to Georgia, bring them back here in one day. Paul is located at Homestead. His prices are very competitive. Contact Paul at (319) 400-4228.
Jim Davis gave a talk about making splits. A split involves taking frames of brood, pollen and honey from a strong hive to create one or more new hives. Typically, this is done in the spring with strong, overwintered hives. The split can be put into a full sized box or a nuc. A nuc is a nucleus, or small colony of two to five frames. It will contain frames of young brood, capped brood and resources including pollen and honey. Timing is important. If you are having the bees make a new queen, there needs to be sufficient drones available for her to have successful mating. In Iowa, mid-May is typically a time when there would be enough drones, which means mid-April would be the time to do a split.
Make sure nights are warm enough (50 degrees) so there are enough bees in the split to cover the frames and keep the brood warm. This is critical.
Be sure to shake enough bees into the new split. Remember than some will drift back to the original hive, so shake more in than you would think you would need. Another option is to move the split colony three to four miles away.
There are many types of splits. Below several are explained. Looking online, you can find many videos showing all types of splits.
Walk Away Split
Procedure: Pull frames from the original hive that contain eggs and young larva. Shake the bees off the frames and place them in the center of the new box. Add honey frames and pollen frames on the sides if you have them. Leave space between frames so queen cells have room to develop and frames can be moved with less chance of damaging the queen cells.The split can be placed fairly close to the original or moved further away if desired. Either leave the hive alone for several weeks or add another frame of eggs/brood in a week, just for insurance. Whichever you do, move frames with care so you don’t damage any queen cells.
Advantages: You don’t have to find the queen. It involves minimal invasion into the colony. You don’t need to buy a new queen. Though not 100% effective, it is a commonly used method of splitting.
Disadvantages: This takes a little more time for the colony to become queen-right, which means a slower growing colony. You also need to be able to spot and identify egg cells or very young larva. Doing this on a bright, sunny day will help.
Bee Shake Split
Procedure: Pull frames with capped brood and larva to put in the new box. Shake all the bees back into the original hive. Put a queen excluder on top of the original hive and place the split box on top of that. The nurse bees from the original colony below will move up right away to cover the frames. The second day, pull the split off and set on a new bottom board. Add a new, mated queen to the split, either that day or the next. Or add a frame with a queen cell on it if you have one.
Advantages: Because you shook the bees into the original box, the queen will remain in the original colony. The new queen is added to the queenless split. With frames of capped brood and a mated queen, the split should develop quickly.
Disadvantages: You do need to go into the hive on consecutive days to do this split. If you don’t have a frame with queen cells, you will need to buy a mated queen
Vertical Split
Set the original colony off to the side. Place an empty split box on top of the bottom board. Prepare the new split box like you would in a walk-away, with frames of eggs/young larva, pollen and honey. Put a double screen board, also called a Snellgrove Board, on top of the split box. Have the entrance for the board face opposite the entrance on the box below and open to the upper box, which sits on top of the double screen board. Put the original box on top of the screen board. In 8 days, rotate the entire colony 180 degrees. After another week or so, remove the top box and place it on a new bottom board. *Be sure the queen remains in the original box!
Advantages: Because of the heat rise from the lower box, this split can often be done earlier in the spring.
Disadvantages: This takes a little more time for the colony to become queen-right, which means a slower growing colony. You also need to be able to spot and identify egg cells or very young larva. Doing this on a bright, sunny day will help.
Queen Excluder Split
Procedure: Make sure each brood box has capped brood and/or larva. Place a queen excluder between each brood box. In 10 days, return to the hive and see which box has eggs or young larva. That will be the box with the queen. Remove the box(es) that do not have a queen and use it for the split. Add a mated queen or frame with a queen cell.
Advantages: You do not have to find the queen, since you will know where she is by finding her offspring.
Disadvantages: You will need to go back into the colony after a period of time to locate the box that has the queen. This is a bit slower progress than the bee shake method. You also need to buy a mated queen or have a frame with a queen cell.
Floyd’s Split
Find the queen and place her in a nuc with a frame of brood, honey and pollen with enough bees to cover the frames. In 10 days, the original hive should have made replacement queen cells. Use these frames to make splits, adding frames with brood, honey and pollen. After splitting, return the queen and the frames from the nuc to the original colony.
Advantages: This has the potential to make a number of queen cells that can be used to start several splits.
Disadvantages: Since the bees will be making new queens, this method will result in a slower buildup of the split colonies.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:05
Thanks again to Rob McCain and Urban Acres for letting us use the facility.
Next meeting is June 13th.
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Davis, Secretary
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