Specific recommendations for Deep East Texas beekeepers by Robert Jones
April sees the honey flow getting heavier with the continuance of the wildflowers along with the yopon holly that flows to mid-April and with the privet hedge starting about the time the Yopon stops and flowing to May 1st. This early flow is the first excess honey that can be captured in Deep East Texas. The timing of extracting the honey should be about May 10th. Be sure the frames are well capped before extraction.
Supering and queen evaluation take precedence over possible extraction this month.
If you are using full box splits with a lot of bees you should want to see a large laid out area at 30 days with minimum drone cells. The larger the laid out area, 6 to 8 frames, the higher the queen quality. If this is what you find, super this colony immediately. This queen will make you honey. However, If the brood area is extremely small and there are no eggs, spotty brood, just drone brood, or the brood just doesn’t exist kill the bad queen bee and replace her. She is a bad queen and will not improve (Note: A queen will only lay out an area as big as there are nurse bees to cover it). If it is late into the season you may also stack this super on a good queen for an extra boost on colony expansion and more honey.
Smaller 2 or 3 frame nuc starts should be evaluated based on their bee resource levels. These small starts should have extremely small entrances and, if possible, be kept in a different apiary yard a couple of miles from your main one. (NOTE: If there is a dearth of nectar small colonies normally are robbed out).
Package Bees ordered back in January will arrive with new queens and will need installation into hives. Swarm control will need to continue during the nectar flow time with extra supers. Keep those bees working. Continue to feed small hives or hives that you are still working to grow for brood production.
BUILDING THE FRAME Make a box frame the exact dimensions of your beehive. (16” X 19 7/8” = Langstroth 10 frame). The height should be about 2” to 4” but it is not critical. Getting
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In our PBA Bylaws, part of our mission is to improve marketing of honey bee products, so a current regulations summary seems appropriate when considering selling your golden crop! Your best honey is extracted soon
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This is the pdf version of the presentation given by Robert Jones at the February 2019 meeting. It deals with queen rearing using a cell builder colony and the Doolittle grafting method, and also touches
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These are reminders for those who took the queen rearing course or anyone trying their hand at this. Remember - The most important part of creating good queen cells is the cell builder colony. Choose
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Our Association’s Mission is first dedicated to honey bee education including all the different facts about and pleasures of keeping these wonderful creatures of God. Secondly, we are dedicated to the mission of service to others through internal mentoring and education of our club members as well as external programs to the general public. It is to these two missions we commit our combined efforts as an association to place into others, by mentoring, education, and apprenticeship, our love and passion for beekeeping. Our membership offers to all the much-needed experience that even beginners can have - the pleasure and joy we have personally each time we visit a beehive.