prep for 2014 OSR

[garethjbarry]

Hi,
I got chatting with a farmer about bees and he has said that I can take my bees to his OSR field next year. I was wondering what prep and things in general do I need to do to take a hive or two? It will be the first time I will have moved my bees for a honey crop so any advice would be much appreciated. Oh and the field is 10 miles away so no distance issue.

 

[drstitson]

make sure you have plenty of supers available (stock up on supers, frames and foundation in the sales or at the upcoming NHS) remove the full ones at 2/3 capped. and extract asap.

and as rab says - don't bottle immediately but keep in buckets to set then use as appropriately later.

and remember, if you have the kit to extract them, OSR is a good way to get brood frames drawn!

 

[Pete D]

Hi,
I got chatting with a farmer about bees and he has said that I can take my bees to his OSR field next year. I was wondering what prep and things in general do I need to do to take a hive or two? It will be the first time I will have moved my bees for a honey crop so any advice would be much appreciated. Oh and the field is 10 miles away so no distance issue.

Took some of mine this year to two osr sites. I keep bees on 5 sites but bring them all to my home apiary over winter. I did my first full evaluation of the colonies and took the biggest colonies to the osr. I had planned to unite some if I felt they needed it to ensure they were big enough to take advantage of the crop. I didn't end up doing any unites as colony numbers were slightly down which on reflection was wrong for yield but right to maintain stocks.
The hives I took had what seemed to be good young queens, plenty of bias and plenty of room to expand. They were 14x12 colonies and I put supers on them as soon as I could. Best hive run with 4 supers on all the time so I could harvest 2 at a time. This hive gave 210 lb.
This year I will be uniting hives to ensure they are all at least as strong as this one was. Learning all the time.
More bees make more honey, not more hives.
It's just about ensuring they are a big enough force for early foraging, I fell lucky this year as the crop was a few weeks behind. Next season I will make my own luck and just need the weather to help.
I did give a bit of light spring feed to encourage them but most bee keepers I know did this too out of necessity. Did not feed any pollen though as plenty coming in.
Good luck

 

[oliver90owner]

Pete D has learned quickly.

Very strong colonies get the crop

You likely need to start them expanding early to take advantage of a short blooming period in early April.

You need kit ready for colony numbers expansion as the crop goes over.

An expanding colony is not what you want; it is foragers, so bees over three weeks old with lots following on. Any bees emerging after the crop starts flowering will not add to the crop.

It is a bit of a lottery with just a couple of hives, but with several one can easily reinforce a few to be ready at the expected time.

The last two OSR seasons have been atypical in most respects. 2012 saw OSR in bloom in late March followed by seven weeks of absolutely rubbish weather and then only the last week in May when any decent amount of foraging got done. Many were feeding colonies during those seven weeks to ward off starvation. 2013 crops were very late in comparison with the norm and some got good crops eventually -due in part to the lengthened season because of re-seeded areas of failed crops extending the flowering period (and other reasons).

If you are able to extract brood frames, using a box of foundation as a super can be, as DrS says, a good way to get evenly drawn brood frames for use later on. Remember a box of 14 x 12 full of honey is veeerrry heavy.

RAB

 

[ichbinpaul]

Excellent info thank you RAB

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Pete D has learned quickly.

If you are able to extract brood frames, using a box of foundation as a super can be, as DrS says, a good way to get evenly drawn brood frames for use later on. Remember a box of 14 x 12 full of honey is veeerrry heavy.

RAB

Unintentionally I added a fresh brood box with new foundation on my langstroths. The bees decide to fill it with OSR rather than expand the broodnest and a langstroth brood box jam packaged carrying across the field to the car = lots of stopping!

 

[Skyhook]

You need kit ready for colony numbers expansion as the crop goes over.

RAB

Amen to that, brother.

Colonies built up early will be up for swarming early.


.

 

[For want of a better word]

More bees make more honey, not more hives

to quote the Tractor Man... 100% WRONG.......

Like pulling hens teeth sometimes.... fortunately two of my beekeepering partners are dentists!

different stance in answer to my questions on OSR & colony management...

IS this a North South divide the Tories are always harping on about?

 

[Pete D]

More bees make more honey, not more hives

to quote the Tractor Man... 100% WRONG QUOTE]

I could take 10 hives containing 30k bees each to osr and not get any honey crop. Unite them to 5 hives ie more bees in a hive (60k) and would get a crop.

I stand by it, more bees equals more honey crop not more hives.
It's about the number of bees / foragers available in each hive to produce the surplus honey than the number of extra hives just making enough for themselves.

 

[Putnamsmif]

make sure you have plenty of supers available (stock up on supers, frames and foundation in the sales or at the upcoming NHS) remove the full ones at 2/3 capped. and extract asap.

and as rab says - don't bottle immediately but keep in buckets to set then use as appropriately later.

and remember, if you have the kit to extract them, OSR is a good way to get brood frames drawn!

"upcoming NHS" ??? What's that ???

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

National Honey Show

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

This hive gave 210 lb.

Careful Pete, you're in danger of upstaging Finman and we can't be having that, you know what will happen

 

[oliver90owner]

Pete D,

Your comment, taken in context, was spot on.

But, taken out of context and quoted independently causes some problems. Like - your five hives would have the same number of bees as the original ten!

Context is important.

Of course, up to a point, more (strong) colonies will make more honey than fewer. The point being when the foraged crop is saturated with foragers.

Yes, it all needs to be taken in context.

Just like newbies. Some are new and some seem to have been reading the forum since 2010. Sometimes one wonders what they have been reading, whether it goes straight through, or what?

 

[user 6228]

More bees make more honey, not more hives

to quote the Tractor Man... 100% WRONG QUOTE]

I could take 10 hives containing 30k bees each to osr and not get any honey crop. Unite them to 5 hives ie more bees in a hive (60k) and would get a crop.

I stand by it, more bees equals more honey crop not more hives.
It's about the number of bees / foragers available in each hive to produce the surplus honey than the number of extra hives just making enough for themselves.

That's not quite more bees. Your argument IMHO is more like that it's the ratio of foraging bees to non foraging bees.
That would make sense then if the overheads are smaller in proportion to the production then the surplus will be greater.
So if you change nothing else larger colonies may have that advantage. But it may also mean there are other ways to get the increase in surplus. I.e. By reducing overhead.

 

[drstitson]

"This hive gave 210 lb. Careful Pete, you're in danger of upstaging Finman and we can't be having that, you know what will happen"

presumably the extra 11lb or so was just sugar water left over from winter and moved up when supers added! so no true competition for the man himself. He can rest easy on his laudeliina for now.

 

[user 6228]

"upcoming NHS" ??? What's that ???

With the posters background It sounds like a government restructuring of the health service rather than an event

 

[busybee53]

Re what newbies have been reading. Not page 80 of Haynes Bee Manuel I hope, because they have got the colours for marking queens wrong. At least in my June 2011 edition they have. For a moment I thought I had used the wrong colours. Luckily I had Ted, Clive and Ron's books to fall back on. Phew.

 

[drstitson]

or just use a single bright colour of own choice. saves needing to remember. and makes queen spotting easier.

 

[Putnamsmif]

National Honey Show

Doh!

 

[Pete D]

The point I was trying to make is that to take advantage of any forage be it early osr or summer is that you want your colony to be as big as possible with maximum number of foragers and plenty of space to put the honey in per hive when the flow is on.
I may not of articulated that well enough that I was taken out of context, confusing, or left open to interpretation, so I will try again . . .

A large colony with 60-70k bees will produce more surplus crop than 2 smaller hives of 35k each working the same place on the same flow. Yes the larger colony may eat more but it will have a higher number of foragers to forage and house bees to process the nectar.

I took 4 hives to 1 site, 3 average ones and the bigger one all local mongrels, same temperament and positioned and managed in the same way. The one hive produced more honey than the other 3 combined. All hives were busy when the flow was on but the big hive was heaving. It had filled 2 supers and was on the 3rd before the others had done 1, when I removed 1 I added 2 more and then kept them on 4 always leaving them plenty of space to process the nectar. This hive also gave me a few frames of cut comb from the bean crop, drawing, filling and capping it in just a few days. A small colony couldn't do that.

I am only in my third year and happy to learn all the time from anyone, everyone and any resource. My main learning have come from working my 15-35 hives through the season, having a week with Chris B and from my mistakes.

I have learnt not to be too sentimental with duff and poor queens/ colonies and to always have a reason to open a hive, a plan for what you may find and all the kit you might need to execute it to hand, along with my abbreviated version of the above explanation......its more bees that make more honey not more hives.
Roll on next season and more learnings and experience.