To All,
My reaction to Roys first printout was that you folks are COMING ALONG, but you are not GETTING ALONG very well
To be sure, beekeeping is a complex subject. Some things that affect techniques of management are region of the country, forage in that area, and the development timeline of the bees responding to those variables. In addition, the age of the colony affects their objectives for any given season. A pending article (maybe April) treats the subject of the differences between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year colonies. Well come back to this later first, a few general comments.
Dont get hung up on February. Yes, I do my thing in Feb. when my colonies are in full bore build up. March here is the swarm prep season to release a swarm about April first. Peggjams bees are struggling in Feb. to offset fall bee loss to maintain cluster size. I would guess western N.Y. bees dont get into full bore build up until April about two months behind the schedule here. My Feb. is Peggjams April.
A good reference for regional affects is the hardiness zone charts available at your country extension office. Connie Krochmal had one in her Nov. BC article as it applied to fruit trees. Although small variations exist between her Arbor Day Foundation chart and the ones I use, there is a wealth of info in hers. The zone bands are color-coded from north to south, in 10 degree increments of average annual low temps. Those bands are fairly uniform, north to south in the middle of country where the polar air descends from central Canada. But ocean influence affects them greatly at extreme east and west. Wade might be surprised to find that Eugene OR is on the line between zone 8 and 9. Nine is near tropical and moving east, we see Z5 in the mountainous areas. Thats the same difference we see from gulf coast Louisiana to northern Illinois. Latitude is only part of the picture. Elevation is significant. The higher elevations get much colder.
I live in the lower edge of Z6. For those of you who think Alabama (6 miles south) is the deep south, think again. Z6 swoops eastward and northward to include most of Pennsylvania. We get snow and ice, for a short period. Southern Alabama, where packages and queens are produced is in Z8. (Coastal warming) I thought I made it plain in my manuscript where I was located, but didnt make it plain in application for other areas.
I believe that the bees key on forage availability. It could be other things such as day length, temperature average, etc. Nobody knows. But I see a speeding up with a mild, late winter, and a slowing down with late freezes in their development schedule. The key milestone in their development schedule is reproductive cut off. I may be the only person in that world that believes in that milestone, but it is obvious when you know what to look for. Swarm prevention, main flow storing, brood nest expansion or contraction all are affected by the timing of repro cut off.
The differences in internal operations of the colony by age of existence is also important. First year colonies are motivated by establishing wintering requirements. They either fulfill those requirements, or they perish in their first winter. Multiple priorities include building comb, rearing replacement bees, accumulating winter stores, and feeding the colony in parallel. Tough assignment.
It doesnt matter whether the starter is a split, package, natural swarm, observation hive or nuc. All are in a live or die struggle. Operations are tailored to get the job done. The natural swarm is best prepared for this task. They left the parent colony with the best mix of talent to make a go at it. Packages, splits, or observation hives are at the mercy of the beek responsible. There is no way he can select the proportions of age groups to insure the right mix. Nucs are typically splits with enough age to organize the work force. They fare better.
Second year colonies have two options. If they get fully established, by filling their cavity with comb and stores, behave much like 3rd year colonies. But if they perceive that they didnt get it done in their 1st year, they can double clutch back down into the establishment mode. To do this they develop wax-making capability in the early season well before the third year colonies. They can still swarm if they complete swarm prep requirements in the accelerated mode. And thats the objective of every overwintered colony. (Generate a reproductive swarm)
3rd year colonies that are fully established dedicate build up to reproduction. If they are strong enough and forage supports their needs, they are successful in swarming.
The sequence of steps in colony spring development is very important. The colony builds brood volume, starts swarm preps, rears house bees, and starts main flow storing on a predictable schedule. Repro cut off is the change in objectives from swarm ambition (prep) to rearing house bees for the main flow.
Where, on their schedule that manipulations are performed does make a difference.
The interaction of the above general info means that there are a multitude of variations in colony reaction to the beeks meddling in their business.
Another unpopular opinion is that the queen is given credit for judgments she doesnt make and preferences she doesnt have. Those credits pervade this thread. The queen has one judgment to make, and thats left to her because only she makes it. She decides whether to lay a fertile or an unfertile egg, based on cell size. Where and when to lay are controlled by her court. She is induced to lay in cells which her daughters have prepared for eggs. When the steering committee (court) has no need of her services, she can be found lumbering aimlessly over empty comb with no interest.
Expansion has two meanings in this thread. Overwintered brood nest expansion takes place in late winter and lasts until approximately last frost timing for your area. Any colony strong enough to reach maximum, safe consumption of honey reserves prior to last frost timing, starts swarm preparations by reducing brood nest volume. Reduction can start 3 to 4 weeks prior to last frost timing for the swarming colony and generally close to last frost timing for the remainder of colonies, that do not reach swarm commit prior to that time. Last frost timing correlates well with apple blossom timing in the wooded East.
The brood nest expansion stops at repro c/o (last frost timing) and brood nest reduction starts. At the beginning of the main flow the colony has developed wax making capability to support honey storage. They need wax to extend cell depth and cap cured nectar. And they want to fill their space to the top with honey. For the main flow storing, they will draw foundation to support filling the overhead space. Thats a different kind of expansion from brood nest expansion. Call it anything you like, but lets not overlook the difference, and mix them up, indiscriminately.
The subject of this thread is Hive box reversing. Although you folks have wandered away from the subject in several directions. I will try to limit my comments to that manipulation. That subject is complicated enough without discussing the tangents. A few general statements of opinion based on observation, are offered to start:
1. In late winter an empty below the cluster should be reversed to put that box in a position to be used for brood. The colony wants to grow upward in that season to take advantage of heat rise from the cluster. There is little advantage for doing it prior to field nectar availability. The colony generally will not populate the raised empty with brood until nectar is stored in it first. The nectar is consumed to feed the colony in the shape of the expansion dome. When that nectar is consumed, and the cells prepared for eggs, those cells are filled with eggs in a batch. This gives the impression that brood nest expansion just jumped into the raised empty. Dont ask me why the colony needs nectar in those cells first to condition them for brood. Thats not something that can be determined by observation. However, it is consistent with consumption of honey for brood nest expansion.
2. Hive body reversal is the swarm prevention manipulation most recommended in the literature. Reversal for swarm prevention is not generally understood for its effects. Its definitely not for keeping the brood volume growing upward. The reverse is true. It causes the brood volume to grow downward in a left-handed way. Assuming a double deep, reversal early as in 1. above, both hive bodies are essentially filled with brood. At that time, the colony starts backfilling the upper chamber from the top down. If they complete backfilling, swarm commit is signaled by starting swarm cells. To prevent backfill to proceed to that point, reverse hive bodies. What this does is cause the colony to start over in backfilling from the top because the raised lower had brood to the top. The bees want the nectar of backfill above the brood if they swarm that nectar will be cured and capped for over-wintering honey. What was the top box is now the bottom. As a result of the first (1. above) reversal that box would normally have a dome of brood in the lower part, and nectar above the brood and in the surrounding dome shoulders. This nectar above the dome and in the shoulders of the dome is the swarm prep reserve if left alone ( Rebuilt with nectar instead of capped honey.) When that box is placed on the bottom they will convert the reserve by consumption to brood, and again have brood to the top bars through the brood nest. They dont want their reserve sandwiched between brood volumes. This expansion of the brood nest in the lowered box is taking place concurrently with brood nest reduction by backfilling in the raised box.
To be effective as a swarm prevention manipulation, the process must be repeated at two to three week intervals until reproductive cut off. Brood of all ages in the raised box slows backfilling pending brood emergence. But at the end of the 3 week worker brood cycle the colony is back where they want to be ready to commit to swarm by starting queen swarm cells. Note that Peggjam reverses early to put the empty back into service and resorts to some other technique later for swarm prevention.
3. Prevention of reproductive swarms by periodic hive body reversal does not come without potential overcrowding swarms. Those late swarms can result from depriving the colony of their natural population control of brood nest reduction. Periodic reversal results in more brood volume through the swarm prep period than the colony would have if permitted to do it their way. The additional population generated by excess brood volume can generate an overcrowded swarm if space is not added overhead early in the sequence. I suspect that reversals are the cause of after swarms (pure conjecture). If the colony doesnt balance population in proportion to stores and space with the primary overcrowding swarm, they can fine-tune with after swarms of diminishing numbers of bees. This conjecture is based on not seeing after swarms in my area when the colony is permitted to swarm doing it by their natural format. The literature generated in the northeastern tier of states comes from the same area where periodic reversals are favored for swarm prevention.
Had enough? One more!
4. Under some circumstances the colony will expand the brood nest downward into empty comb. Let me describe one case where multiple colonies in the same outyard did it in unison. Raising of an empty on the bottom in late winter was delayed on several colonies because they were, collectively, using the upper edge of comb in the lower empty for feed pollen. The feed pollen was supporting full frames of brood in the upper across the gap between boxes. To avoid separating their feed pollen from brood by raising that feed pollen to the top, the first reversal was postponed. About half the colonies with delayed reversal expanded the brood nest downward to fill the lower empty with brood. They did it the same way they expand into empty comb overhead filling it first with nectar, and displacing the nectar with brood in a batch. Storing nectar below the brood nest is grossly out of character for the species, but I suspect that was a case of having some time in the vegetative development schedule. Believe me the colony knows where they are on the season schedule (Ques unknown.) Speeding up or slowing colony development was mentioned in the lead in to this blurb. I believe that those colonies that elected to expand downward were ahead of schedule. Instead of marking time restricted to the upper hive body, and limiting swarm population to what could be generated in that space, they used the time to enhance swarm population. If that was true, its another unreported gimmick in their survival traits. Who knows what other gimmicks lurk in their genes?
I may address other side issues in this thread when I get back home in mid Feb.
Walt Wright