The following honey production philosophy was presented by one of our own beekeepers, Hugh Feagle, Leeds, AL to the JCBA during a monthly meeting last year. Though reluctant to put anything on paper so "people could just shoot holes through it ", Hugh has agreed to share his thought process and the reasoning associated with his analysis. His only request was that we emphasize that readers should make every attempt to understand the assumptions made in formulating the graphs, and that this is a generic approach, based upon empirical data observed by one beekeeper over a number of years, in Jefferson County, Alabama."
Hugh began raising bees in Florida with his brother in their commercial beekeeping operation. After college, Hugh postponed his beekeeping days and pursued his career as an Electrical Engineer. Now retired, Hugh maintains about 60 hives and about 15 NUCS in and around the Leeds area. Hugh's background in commercial beekeeping, his natural desire to maximize potential through engineering analysis, and his genuine fondness of working around honey bees, serves him well as an expert in honey production. Whatever honey flow nature provides us in a particular year, Hugh's bees generally produce "a little more". The following discussion suggests some predictable results on hive population recovery based upon five scenario’s beekeepers may use to make the colony queen-right, and the resultant effect on honey production relative to a generic "Honey Flow" as observed in the Leeds area.
Photo courtesy of John Caldeira
MAXIMIZING HONEY PRODUCTION
By Hugh Feagle, Leeds, AL
Two of the primary reasons why bee hives do not produce bumper crops of honey during the honey flow is swarming and failing queens. The following charts graphically show the effects of each of these on hive population which directly determines the amount of honey produced by the hive.
These charts are computer simulations made by inputting the number of eggs the queen lays each day and the number of days a worker bee lives.
See chart 1 below for a graph of "Hive Population", for a young healthy queen. This chart shows "Hive Population" peaking near the beginning of the honey flow and maintaining this population until the end of the honey flow. This is the type hive that will produce the maximum honey crop.
The following assumptions apply to all charts:
The honey flow starts on 15 April and ends 30 June.
The Queen lays a maximum of 1500 eggs per day starting on 1 March
The worker bees live for 31 days.
CHART
1
Notice that "Hive Population" peaks at 46,500 bees near the start of the "Honey Flow" and maintains this level throughout for maximum honey production. The shape of the "Honey Flow" curve indicates that the flow is more intense near the start of the flow.
See chart 2 below for a graph of "Hive Population", for the same hive which swarms on 15 April.
CHART
2
The following assumptions apply to chart 2:
The hive swarms on 15 April.
The new queen hatches 1 days later, then mates in 5 days and starts laying in 5 days(26 April).
The swarm takes 60% of the bees with it.
Notice that the "Hive Population" immediately drops by 60% and recovers some while the old brood hatches but does not fully recover until about 16 June , near the end of the honey flow. The average "Hive Population" during the honey flow is about 72% as much as the normal hive.
See chart 3 below for a graph of "Hive Population", for the same hive which becomes queenless and raises it own queen.
CHART
3
The following assumptions apply to chart 3:
The hive become queenless on 15 April.
The hive raises a new queen which hatches 11 days later, then mates in 5 days and starts laying in 5 days(6 May).
Notice that the "Hive Population" starts dropping at 1500 bees per day after all the old brood hatches and starts to recover when the new queen’s bees start hatching, but does not fully recover until about 30 June , the end of the honey flow. The average "Hive Population" during the honey flow is about 66% as much as the normal hive.
See chart 4 below for a graph of "Hive Population", for the same hive which is queenless and the beekeeper requeens with a caged queen.
CHART
4
The following assumptions apply to chart 4:
The hive become queenless on 15 April.
The beekeeper finds hive queenless 1 week later(22 April).
The beekeeper has to order a queen which takes 1 week.
The queen is introduced on 29 April and is released and starts laying 4 days later(3 May).
Notice that the "Hive Population" starts dropping at 1500 bees per day after all the old brood hatches and starts to recover when the new queen’s bees start hatching, but does not fully recover until about 26 June , which is 4 days better than if the hive raised their own queen. The average "Hive Population" during the honey flow is about 70% as much as the normal hive
See chart 5 below for a graph of "Hive Population", for the same hive which is queenless and the beekeeper requeens with a 5 frame nuc.
CHART
5
The following assumptions apply to chart 5:
The hive becomes queenless on 15 April.
The beekeeper finds hive queenless 1 week later(22 April).
The beekeeper introduces a 5 frame nuc on 22 April.
The nuc was started on 15 Mar with about 2 pounds of bees and 2 frames of brood
The nuc queen started laying on 1 April.
The nuc has 4 frames of brood when introduced
The nuc queen averages about 700 eggs per day while in the nuc because of limited laying space prior to introduction.
Notice that the "Hive Population" immediately jumps up by about 8000 bees from the nuc. The hive population continues to climb while both hive brood and nuc brood hatches. The population now starts down(5 May). This is when the old hive population starts losing 1500 bees per day. The flat line around 10-23 May is when the nuc is hatching 1500 bees per day and the old hive is dying off at 1500 bees per day. The population starts down again during the time when the nuc queen laying was restricted because of space. The population starts up when all the old hive bees are dead. The average "Hive Population" during the honey flow is about 100% or the same as the normal hive.
Inspection of the "Swarmed Hive" chart shows why it is so important to prevent swarming. There is no way to replace the lost bees unless you are lucky enough to catch the swarm. Inspection of the "Queenless" charts show that a hive raising it’s own queen is not a good solution nor is requeening with caged queen much better.
The following explains how I deal with these two problems in an effort to maximize my honey production.
First, the problem of swarming, starting in the last week of March and continuing through the swarming season, I inspect each hive once a week and cut out any swarm cells found and evaluate the queen. This reduces my swarming problem to about one or two hives per season. If I find a hive which has swarmed, I put the honey suppers on adjacent hives and move the swarmed hive to the end of the row. I know the swarmed hive will not rebuild in time to make a crop, so I let all the field bees go into the adjacent hives to improve their populations. The swarmed hive will have a new queen and be ready for next year. I also keep a record so will I know the history of each hive.
If I find a failing queen during my inspections, I immediately introduce a five frame nuc to bring the hive back to production as indicated by chart 5.
Using these techniques, I produced about 100 pounds per hive in 2003 even though that year was very bad for honey production.
PHOTO Courtesy of Dr. Zachary Huang, MSU