Reverse, split or leave alone? Help please.

[Tony Teolis]

Hi,

I have managed to bring a hive of Russians through its first winter in great shape. Using two deeps and left medium super full of honey on top. I want to allow for more bees versus harvesting honey at this stage. At least I think that's what I should do. Debating if I should reverse hive bodies or try for a separate colony through a split. I'm in northern Virginia and spring is coming early it seems. The web of advice is confusing and any advice is greatly appreciated. Hive videos and pics are at http://todolisthome.com Thank you. Tony Teolis

[Vance G]

The russians have a reputation for swarming probably for a reason. Your present configuration indeed sounds like a reputation for inducing a swarm. Read all you can on checkerboarding would be my advice or pull the queen and a small split making sure to leave the original colony eggs to raise a new queen. They will produce a crop if they are on a flow and a new queen. Your split should easily grow into a new winterable colony.

[Tony Teolis]

Your reply is much appreciated. I am going to have a closer look at things next week and refine plans from that.

[WVBees]

Tony,
I sent you a pm. Video looked good for 3 weeks ago. I am only repeating what everybody said to me. So decide what you want at the end of the year and work towards that. From my 2 hives I want about 100 lb honey and increase to 8 hives. So I am grafting queens and making nucs. Best of luck.

[throrope]

Mine started as Italians about eight years ago. I also have two deeps and always wintered over with only two deeps. The last couple of years in SE PA were not great and the manipulations I tried to avoid swarming only served to weaken the colonies and provide the neighbors with entertainment while I fetched them from trees. I'm not confident reversing or other means I tried improved on swarming and my harvests suffered accordingly. Last year for the first time, I lost four out of five hives. I bought two packages to build up, but one didn't make it to winter and the other didn't make it through. As a small-scale keeper harvesting for personal use and gifts, I tend when I can rather than when I should.

The survivor colony went bonkers and I found more than half dozen queen cells smack in the middle of our flow. I split them into two more, harvested 35# (fine for me) and today all three are active and look good.

Two hives are the same work as one and provide protection. If one gets in trouble, you can add frames from the other. If both get week, you can combine (maybe I’ll try this year) for a better chance of surviving the winter. I also prefer propagating through splits & swarms over packages because the girls are already adapted to the local environment. Five hives become a bit more work, but you still only need one tool, one suit and one smoker. Two of mine are in a nearby neighbor’s yard.

As far as gear, I suggest researching and buying what you feel will serve best. Bee protection IMHO is you’re most important decision since buying something you’re not happy with gets expensive. I use half suits with self-supporting hood, nylon wind pants over jeans, vented leather full length gloves with now failed elastic, near knee high rubber boots and masking tape. The combo gets hot, but makes it difficult for the girls to reach. The helmet/veil I got with the beginners kit always fell off at the most inconvenient opportunity. Last year in the middle of tending a non-receptive hive, the girls let me know the screen on my then six-year-old hood completely ripped. I’m now considering a full suit with self supporting hood. I suggest a standard hive tool and really like the stainless one my buddy gave me. Even though I now rarely use it, I suggest a stainless steel smoker and find pine needles mixed with paper egg cartons a suitable and readily available fuel. A bright AA battery flashlight can help see the fresh eggs at the bottom of the cells. PA’s apiary group has a great leaflet for mite sugar roll and at the time included a #8 brass hardware cloth that fit a Mason jar lid.

If I had to do again, I’d most likely go for three mediums over two deeps. If my past attempts at TBH were successful, at my scale that would be my first choice. I rigged a nuc assembly for raising queens, but based on the rearing schedule, for my purpose and scale, I can't see an advantage over simple splits and it still sits in the garage. Since nucs are near the same cost as production hives, I suggest building them.

This year I'm setting complete empty hives (since I have them) next to my colonies and will keep close tabs for build up and queen cells. Since I now have four empty deeps, if possible I’ll spit into all of them and then combine in fall to make for stronger colonies going into winter. I'm also thinking on a long hive that will take top bars or lang frames so that I can transfer between them since at $200 for a complete hive, that snooty honey from the "au-natural" store starts looking like a bargain.

I hope you're lucky enough to experience a swarm. I walked out to the backyard and fount a twenty to thirty foot diameter and thirty to forty foot high swirling cloud of bees. They settled on a branch about twenty feet above the ground. Since my step ladder didn't reach, I popped the Astro van over the curb, drove down the side yard under the cluster, set the ladder on top, assured my wife we're covered for acts of stupidity and knocked them into a cardboard box. Well not really, they landed on top of the van and I used a hand brush and dustpan to sweep and dump them into the box. Royal Draper heard the girls fanning over the cell phone - sticking their backsides in the air from the edge of the box and vigorously flapping wings. They distributed their queen's pheromones so that their sisters could find mom. After a while, they all found their way to the box. I dumped them into a spare super with only scrap plywood for a top and bottom and ordered a new hive. When the new gear arrived, I was surprised at how much "wasted" work they did within a couple of days.

If you're looking forward to your first harvest, I suggest checking out http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm for his crush and strain method vs contemplating a $300 extractor. I use thin comb foundation, cut the full comb from the frame directly into a 5 gallon food grade bucket, smash it up with a drill driven paint stirrer (this year I'm springing for stainless http://www.amazon.com/Bon-15-181-B0-...=1J7HSQMMORK3A), strain through http://www.midwestsupplies.com/winem...fine-mesh.html (OK, I just found these from another's recent post.) inside a bucket with holes on the bottom per Michael into a bottling bucket with a https://www.mannlakeltd.com/mm5/merc...&Search=hh-606. Then let settle for a couple weeks and bottle directly into mason jars lifted out of the dishwasher. Afterwards I leave buckets, wax, tools, etc. out next to the hives so the girls can scavenge every bit of left over honey. My wife loves the evolved procedure since I only got two drops of honey on the kitchen floor last year. We melt and strain the wax and burr comb and with the help of a $5 goodwill crock-pot, dip wicks into pure beeswax candles for a winter evening family activity. I'm thinking I can sell the candles at the neighborhood garage sale for more net money than honey with no risk.

Instead of waiting until the end of our traditional flow, last year I regularly checked the single super on my survivor and pulled full frames throughout the season. I found the quick trips during the week within spare time easier than entire weekend at the end of the flow.

http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm is the most balanced resource I’ve found. Michael participates here often and generously provides support. I suggest spending time with Michael before buying any resource.

Tony, I hope you get stung with the bee fever. Some years pollinating the neighborhood was the only reward. That was enough. Last year I nearly gave up. This year I’m gearing up.

Hope this helps, please post pictures and good luck.

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopswitching

"Some beekeepers, trusting the ways of bees less than I do, at this point routinely 'switch hive bodies,' that is, switch the positions of the two stories of each hive, thinking that this will induce the queen to increase her egg laying and distribute it more widely through the hive. I doubt, however, that any such result is accomplished, and in any case I have long since found that such planning is best left to the bees." --Richard Taylor, The Joys of Beekeeping

[Tony Teolis]

Hi VanceG, Michael Bush and WVBees,

Wow! Thanks for all the advice. I will read through everything you provided vary carefully on top of what I already have. I'll keep track of how things go at http://todolisthome.com and
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/tokyo73?feature=mhee

pics
http://bit.ly/ryCYQB

Thank you.

Tony Teolis in northern VA