To soon?

[BearNBee]

How soon is to soon for winter to spring feeding and reversing boxes in my area? Do most of you still reverse? I know of large scale beekeepers that do not do this anymore.

[Michael Palmer]

How soon is to soon for winter to spring feeding and reversing boxes in my area? Do most of you still reverse? I know of large scale beekeepers that do not do this anymore.

I still reverse. I find it is one of my most useful manipulations for swarm control. Also, I get to inspect the broodnest a bit while doing so...actually most is interlooking, but still valuable.

I find the best time to reverse, here in Northern Vermont, is at the start of the Dandelion flow. I used to reverse earlier, and then after Dandelion, again. Now I approach it a bit differently, and only reverse once.

As I said, I used to reverse before there was any Dandelion bloom. Had to get the bees ready for apples, so the job had to be done early. Then, the bees would be in the orchard for 2 weeks or more. Then I'd reverse again, and super. Swarming was a real problem. Splitting was my method of swarm control on these persistant swarmy colonies. Now that I don't pollinate, I handle it a bit differently.

First, about the first week of May, I super with two mediums, on top of the unreversed broodnest. That takes about a week. Then I start reversing. That takes at least two weeks. The cluster often moves up into the first super, often with a couple frames of brood. I don't use excluders. Bees love to move up. Empty combs above the brood makes the bees feel less crowded. They feel like they can expand their broodnest, which helps prevent swarming. Then I reverse, during the Dandelion flow. This once again places empty comb space above the brood. Again, the bees feel like they can move up, and expand their broodnest.

I think one main swarming trigger is nectar being stored in the broodnest. Think about the continous cycle of brood rearing. The queen lays in a circular pattern...beginning approximately in the center of the comb. She works her egg laying around, and around, moving toward the outside of the comb. Eventually the comb is full, and the oldest brood starts to hatch. Where is the queen's most favorite place to lay? Where brood has just hatched. As long as she is able to lay to her potential in that space, everything is fine. What if, there is incoming nectar, and no where to put it. Where does that go? In the space where brood has just hatched. And that helps trigger swarming.

Reversing and proper supering gives the bees a place to store nectar away from the emerging brood in the broodnest, and plays a major role in swarm control. I don't think, though, that reversing stimulates the queen to lay any more eggs than she already is. I've never "checkerboarded" any of my colonies, and wouldn't. I find this method to work adequately, and much less work than checkerboarding...not meaning to start another controversy here, just my opinion.

Even colonies that have just started swarm cells...a cup with an egg, or a cup with a new larva and jelly, or unsealed older cells, can be set right with this method, and you don't have to split the hive which divides the work force and reduces yield from early flows. One thing though...you must remove every cup with egg, and started cell. EVERY one! One exception would be a colony with very advanced cells. You must be sure the colony hasn't swarmed before you go cutting out their queen cells. It seems, that once these colonies start filling their supers, that swarming all but stops...if enough supers are given.

[BearNBee]

Michael thanks for the detailed reply it gives me something to think about. The books that I have read say that after the spring feed reverse than 3-4 weeks later reverse and add supers. I did this last year and felt my supers were put on to late in the spring flow. My bees did not take to the excluders so I may turn them sidways or not add them at all. If the bees move up into your super do you have a problems?

[sierrabees]

<If the bees move up into your super do you have a problems?>

Just make sure the queen is below the honey super and put an excluder in place until the brood is hatched out, The bees will fill the empty cells with honey if there is a flow on. Alternatively, take all the frames with brood in and move it below if they are the same size as the brood frames or use them to make up a split later in the season.

[Michael Palmer]

Michael thanks for the detailed reply it gives me something to think about. The books that I have read say that after the spring feed reverse than 3-4 weeks later reverse and add supers. I did this last year and felt my supers were put on to late in the spring flow. My bees did not take to the excluders so I may turn them sidways or not add them at all. If the bees move up into your super do you have a problems?

I feel the same way. Reversing twice and then supering missed the early flows. It really is all about knowing your flows. Here, the advice has always been to super after Dandelion. That avoids getting Dandelion in the supers. Dandelion is a strong flavored honey that crystallizes quickly. Since the Dandelion is the first major flow, and the bees are building up and trying to expand, not having supers on results as in my first post. And, if you didn't get everything reversed the second time, and supered up before Blackberry, then swarming got really bad. Once I started supering before Dandelion, most of the swarming stopped...never say never/knock on wood. One thing I learned by early supering...with strong spring colonies...I discovered another flow. Must have been there in some years, I was just unaware of it. We have two Pussy Willow species here. Three years ago, I got a heck of a flow of the second blooming variety...Salix bebbiana. Some colonies filled mediums in apiaries surrounded by swampy areas.

I don't worry about brood in my supers. After the hives have been reversed, the rest of the honey flow season is spent managing supers. That super with brood is the bottom super of the stack. It can be placed on top of the stack, above full supers. There, the brood will hatch, and the bees will fill it with honey. I guess all this management I'm talking about is flow related. We have a flow that lasts from Dandelion in mid-May, until the end of Goldenrod in late September. If you have early flows that end in mid-summer, and nothing else comes in, then your timing will be different.