Carniolan Bees

[mgolden]

Matt, do you use a queen excluder? Or does this sequencing keep enough open egg laying area and a honey barrier, to mostly keep the queen in the brood nest?

[brooksbeefarm]

I've had carniolan bees for many years,and still buy carniolan queens when i buy queens. I do try other breeds of bees once in awhile and catch swarms, so over the years my bees have become mutts. When the carniolans decide to build up they can do it in a hurry, so i keep an eye on them in the spring and when i see it starting i will take 3 or 4 drawn frames from the bottom brood box and replace them with foundation, bees don't like empty frames and will go to work on them and it (sometimes) take their mind off swarming. ( this was an old Richard Taylor trick.)

[rniles]

When the carniolans decide to build up they can do it in a hurry, so i keep an eye on them in the spring and when i see it starting i will take 3 or 4 drawn frames from the bottom brood box and replace them with foundation

Do you just take any 3 to 4 frames? Which frames do you prefer to take?

[MattDavey]

Matt, do you use a queen excluder? Or does this sequencing keep enough open egg laying area and a honey barrier, to mostly keep the queen in the brood nest?

No, I don't use queen excluders. When you use foundationless (or even half a frame of foundation works well), the bees make all the drone comb that they want and so have no need to go outside the brood nest. The honey/nectar barrier is the queen excluder.

Matthew Davey

[MattDavey]

Is the Carniolan bee just a cold weather bee? My real question is: would they survive, or better said, would they prosper in West Texas?

They do prefer the cooler climate. If you look at the colour of feral bees in your area you will see which breed best suites your area. Basically the colder it is, the darker the bee and the hotter it is the lighter the colour of the bee.

They do react well to the available resources. I have seen them eat eggs and young open brood when pollen resources finish in late summer here. This reduces the amount of brood very quickly! Where my Italians tend to continue to try and raise the open brood.

Matthew Davey

[Mike Gillmore]

Gus,

You really won't need to worry about checkerboarding for a couple of years. You need extra boxes of drawn comb and capped honey to do it, and starting from scratch it will probably take you a couple of seasons to get to that point.

This coming year your bees will be busy drawing comb, establishing their brood nest, and putting up stores for next winter. They may even draw out a super for you, but I wouldn't really count on it. The Spring of 2014 is when you will need to be vigilant regarding swarm prevention measures. With no extra drawn supers at that point you'll need to be "opening up the broodnest" to prevent backfilling and swarming. Carniolans start out with small clusters in early spring but they just explode in population once they get going. It can get away from you if you are not on top of it. I think that's one of the reasons they have a reputation for being swarmy. Beekeepers underestimate how quickly they build up and are not prepared for it, and swarms are the result.

They should drawn out some extra supers for you in 2014 and then you can plan to checkerboard in late winter/early spring of 2015. You have plenty of time to prepare. This coming year just enjoy watching them build up.