API of the Month
Mathieu Domecq
Editor-in-chief of the API of the month and of the blog
The Beekeeping Congress in Tours brought together thousands of beekeeping enthusiasts last month! It was an opportunity to learn more from the conferences and discover new equipment at the stands.
During this time in the beehive, your bees will need you to replenish their reserves and help them fight off hornets. This month we are looking at the bee cycle and propolis. You will also find a reminder about how to feed your bees at the moment.
Did you know that a worker bee gains 900 times its initial weight from egg to adult bee! (source: https://www.apiculture.net/blog/cycle-vie-bees-n38)
This month’s work
This month it is calmer for beekeepers when it comes to their hives. Depending on the region, the following beekeeping work will need to be carried out:
– Feeding the hives: Between unusually hot temperatures and rainfall, it is always best to look at your colonies’ reserves.
November is of course the last month of the year when the queen will lay. The bees that are laid now will be essential for the winter season! If they live for more than around forty days, they will have to survive for close to 120 days! In the south, the queen’s laying will only resume in February.
If the beehive does not need to be boosted, you can give it a 2.5 kg APIFONDA sugar loaf now. And if it is smaller, I recommend giving it a protein sugar loaf. As a reminder, bees do not store sugar paste. They eat it straight away.
Why feed beehives at this time of year? Either the honey stocks in the beehives are insufficient or the bees no longer have the strength to get to their reserves. For them to be in good shape in spring, you need to keep them healthy.
– Trapping hornets: the end is not quite in sight yet. Hornets will still be here until at least December. As long as temperatures remain mild, they will still be around our beehives. The pressure is increasing, especially as this is their mating season. Maximise trapping by having plenty of bait and keeping your beehive entrances as small as possible.
– In the workshop: If you have not already done so, remember to clean and disinfect your equipment. You can also prepare the beehives for the coming season now (cleaning the floors, flashing a blowtorch through the bodies, scraping the propolis off the inter-frames, etc.).
– Beehive statement: If you have not already done so, remember to fill in your annual beehive statement. This is compulsory for anyone with at least one beehive, and it is free! You have until 31 December to do this online on the French Ministry of Agriculture website.
The honey flowers of the month: crocus, aster and nasturtium.
Focus on propolis
It sticks and stains and we sometimes curse it… we all know we are talking about propolis! However, it is essential in the life of the beehive as it protects against pathogenic diseases and can also fill any cracks or rough surfaces. We also use it for its many therapeutic benefits. This is why it is in the beekeeper’s best interest to collect and sell it alongside their honey. Sold as raw gum or diluted in mother tincture, it is known for its healing effects on sore throats, for example. With the arrival of winter, it is popular with consumers.
Nevertheless, this harvest is laborious for the bees. Since foragers are unable to get rid of its propolis load itself, other workers remove it.
Its composition is quite complex, but it mainly contains 30% wax, 50% resin, 10% essential oils, 5% pollen and 5% minerals.
How do you harvest propolis from your beehive?
You can scrape it off the top of the frames or your super’s spacer after the harvest. Some use a blowtorch to easily melt this propolis from the spacers. The easiest way is to use a propolis grid. In spring, you should place it on top of the frames as a frame cover so that air flows between the body and the drafts that enter through the roof. The bees will be disturbed and clog this grid. The beekeeper simply needs to remove it and scrape it off.
The bee development cycle
Every hobby and professional beekeeper should know the bee cycle by heart! Using this, we can understand these observations or even create a new swarm under good conditions.
Once laid by the queen, our future bee will go through three stages of growth:
The egg: from day 0 to day 3, the egg is as small as a grain of rice right at the bottom of the alveolus, which will lie down further and further.
The larva: from day 4 to day 9, the larva resembles a maggot in the alveolus. It takes up more and more space until it occupies the entire alveolus. During the first three days of the larval stage, it is fed with royal jelly. This can be seen from the white, glossy cream deposited under the larva. Until then, this is known as an “open brood” (because you can see the larva at the bottom). Capping takes place on day 9. The alveolus will be covered by a wax cap to allow this larva to transform during the last few days before birth. This is now referred to as a “closed brood” (because you can no longer see the larva).
The nymph: from day 10 to day 21, our future bee develops under the cap. This is when it gets its wings, legs and everything else!
As you can see, it takes 21 days to bring an Apis mellifera worker bee to life.
At first, it is very difficult to see an egg or a very young larva that is less than 3 days old because it is so small. However, without this precise observation, there is little chance that you will succeed in making a swarm because bee-raising starts there! You do not have to look for your queen every time you open a beehive. You will bother or even accidentally crush it. From the moment you see eggs or young larvae, it is because the queen has been past recently!
Also remember that the queen’s laying varies depending on many factors such as season, feed intake, temperature and swarming. At best, our queen can lay 1,500 to 3,000 eggs a day! A Dadant body frame has about 7,000 alveoli for those who feel like calculating…
As usual, share your photos with us. We shall publish them on our website from social media with the hashtags #apifonda #apiinvert!
We will be back next month on the API blog with your faithful partner, Les Ruchers De Mathieu!
LES RUCHERS DE MATHIEU
Honey & Beekeeping Shop
Photos ©lesruchersdemathieu
