If you have more than one or two colonies, it is important to maintain a record of your hives, and what you find inside them on your visits. In the spring our hives will grow, increase the amount of brood in them, their honey bee population, along with such activities like the start of swarm preparation, as well as increased nectar collection. We need a record of the past status of the hive to be aware of the growth and change of what is happening in the hive within the colony. There are many ways to do this, including keeping records on your computer, or cell phone, but I have a fairly simple written system that I employ, which I will share with you. This system works well for me.

                                                

I use a 3 ring notebook, exactly like I used many years ago in school, along with page dividers, which are labeled with the number of my hives – 1, 2, 3, etc. Each page divider represents & holds the record sheets for a different hive. Then I have a simple form, with headings of information that I collect & record each time I look in my hives. Information – as you can see below, includes the hive number, the date that I checked the hive, a line  for information about the queen in the hive, information about each brood box, honey supers on the hive, as well as a place for ‘other information’ and what else ‘needs to be done in the hive’ at a later date. I have a blank form on my computer, which I print out, retaining copies of the blank form with punched holes to be placed in the notebook, under the hive number for each hive. Below is a copy of that record form, with notes in red about what I record on the forms each time I look in that hive.

 I often make up abbreviations. For instance, if I did not see the queen – which is often, I will write “DNS” which means I “did not see" her today. If I only looked in the top box, I might write “did not look” or “DNL” out from bottom box. The important thing is to make some sort of note recording what I saw when I looked into a hive. Leaving that sheet with notes in the notebook, under the divider for that hive number. Then the next time I look in that hive, I look at the hive record sheet and the notes I made that last time I was in that hive, just before rechecking the hive. The new sheet goes on top of the one from the last visit. This way I can tell what has changed in the hive since the last visit. I do not depend on my memory, but on my written notes. What I write down depends on the season, and what is going on in my hives during that season. Right now (in March) the emphasis is growth of brood in the hive. April it may be concerns about possible swarming. And later honey supers. If you only have one hive you might remember from one visit to another, but not if you have 5, or 10, or more. You need notes.

I am only talking about one system, the system that I use.  These forms originated from a similar record keeping system employed by a Jefferson County beekeeper, and the late Owl Landon. I have know beekeepers that use a bound record book, others a system similar to mine - but with only blank pages that they make notes in as needed at the end of each visit. One person I know used blank sheets for each hive that he placed in a Ziplock bag, and placed on top of the empty cover. The main point is to maintain the records.  

Below are some examples of what one might see in my “Bee Book”. But adapt, make up your own system of notation. And here is a blank form, but you can use this as a model, and make up your own form. Overlook my chicken scratch, some days I cannot read my own writing, I hope that you can.

Saturday while speaking with Kentucky beekeepers at the Bluegrass Beekeeping  School I mentioned one of the earliest spring nectar plants here was Purple Dead Nettle, and the plant Henbit. These are small herbaceous plants, henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) and purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), both in the mint family which grow in large patches in fields. (Notice the square stems of these plants, all mints have square stems.) Bee work them heavily, and before beekeepers place honey supers on their hives. They are considered “built up plants”, honey bee colonies collect the nectar and pollen to begin large scale brood production in our hives in the early spring. It’s blooming is a signal to me that the spring bee & honey season has begun in earnest.

 I mentioned to the beekeepers that this bloom was yet to begin, but would soon. Well, as I neared home on my return drive I saw that the distinctive purple blooms of this low lying plant. The bloom had indeed begun. Watch for the purple pollen being brought into your hives this week. Click here to see a handout from the University of Kentucky. The two plants are very similar, but their leaves differ in shape. The plants are   considered weeds, note the words ". . . and control" in the handouts, but not to beekeepers. I think Purple Dead Nettle may be more prominent here. In the spring I first notice the plant’s bloom as a flash of purple in roadside & in my yard, which is more weed than grass. Later what will become hay fields in my home area will become a vast sea of purple. But the bees get the first crop in the hay fields. I think most non-beekeepers hardly notice these little purple flowers, but I most certainly do. I know I have photos that I had taken of Purple Dead nettle in bloom, but I cannot find them, my filing system needs work. Hopefully tomorrow it will be more sunny, cloudy & wet out today, and I will get my camera and post some photos. But for now, see the photos in the U.K. flyer, and check back later.

Recently I wrote about my “First look of the new year into my hives” (February 13, 2023 Post), a check that I had performed a couple of days earlier. But on that visit, which is typical of my early looks in my hives of the year, I did not remove any frames, and look at them. I merely observed the honey bee cluster between the frames, after removing the lids. That gave me all the information that I needed at the time – that told me that the bees in the colony had survived the winter, and the size (number of bees) of the hive’s cluster. Now that we have had a period of warm weather it is time to remove frames and to take a closer look in our hives.

You may wish to review my earlier posts on reversing hive bodies and lighting your smoker – if you have difficulties either lighting your smoker, or keeping your smoker lit.

Why didn’t I remove frames in the earlier visit? It was barely in the 60sF, and a quick look at the opened hive’s cluster told me what I wanted to know in my first check. The fact that the colony was alive, and its cluster size. And this early check was also done while inserting Apivar strips (for varroa control) as early as January, and while replenishing sugar patties. (Just in case emergency winter feeding.) In this post I will describe what to look for in the hive when removing and examining frames.

What I do & look for?

In this visit I will look at all the frames in the brood boxes, though I expect at least some of the bottom boxes will be empty. And on those hives, I will reverse the hive bodies (see my March 1 post on reversing hive bodies). First – as I do when opening the hive when planning to remove the hive’s top box in the visit, I will first remove the outer cover and lay it on the ground with the top of the cover flat on the ground – upside down. And I will then remove the inner cover (smoking the bees as I pry up each lid), and removing the inner cover, I will lean it against the end of the hive just to keep it out of my way. And after removing the inner cover I will puff some smoke between the top of the frames. An old beekeeper I once know described this smoke as “telling the bees that I am coming”. Now I am ready to look in the top brood box.

 Photo by Mary Carney

I will then start at one end of the brood box, and remove the end frame, though this time of year it will likely be empty – meaning the drawn comb will have nothing in it. I will remove this frame & set it on the ground out of my way. Removing this end frame is very important, as it gives me an empty space on this end of the brood box, so I can loosen & pull the next frame partly back into the empty space where I removed the first frame, then lift this frame out to examine it. Later in the year that first frame will not be empty, it will likely be full of honey, and I would again set it on the ground to give me that empty space. (More in a later post on why that end frame is likely full of honey.)

If the second frame is empty (which is possible this time of year), I will pull it back in the slot previously occupied by the first frame – again leaving me with an empty 2 frame space in which to pull back the next frame. I will repeat this removing a frame & then setting it back in the box, then pulling it back as I go through the box. I will now continue through the hive until I find a frame covered with bees – will likely first encountering a frame only covered with bees, or honey. As I examine each frame I will note how many frames are only covered in bees, or full of larvae or capped brood, or eggs, or pollen, and frames filled with honey.  I will then record this information of what were in the frames in my Bee Book (my hives record book). Recording this information is very important to me, as it gives me a record of the condition of the hive for me after this visit, and before looking at the hive again. And this tells me what is going on in the hive. Is the queen laying eggs and is the colony raising larvae & brood. I always look at the notes for the previous visit before looking at it on the next visit, so I am aware of the changes in the hive.

Notice that I did not mention that I was looking for the queen. This is not necessary, since if I saw eggs, or larvae, or even capped brood, I know that she was there recently. Though if I see her, I note that in my records. But seeing “signs” of her is good enough. On a later visit if I see her, I will mark her. More on that in later post as well. I will teach you a simple & safe method for marking your queens. If I do not see “signs of her” I will look more closely for her.

Before closing the hive (remember I have been describing looking in the top box), I will pry up the top box, lift it off the hive, and set it down at an angle onto the lid I left sitting on the ground when I removed it. (At an angle as to prevent squashing any bees on the bottom of the box.) Early in the spring all or most of the bees will be entirely in the top box. I say normally, as with honey bees & beekeeping there are always exceptions. If this bottom box is empty of bees – I will temporarily remove the box, and move what had been the top box onto bottom board , then set it back on the hive stand). I will then sit the empty bottom brood box on top of what had been the top box. I have now reversed the hive bodies. If the bottom box contains bees and brood – which means the colony has already begun moving into the bottom box on their own, I will not reverse the hive bodies, but I will look through this box, as I did the top box.

You have now completed your inspection of your hive. I always perform hive checks looking for the same things, and I make note of the in my Hive Record Book:

• Frames covered with bees.
• Frames of brood, including frames of larvae & capped brood, and frames containing eggs.
• Frames of honey, capped honey, or fresh nectar being brought into the hive.
• Frames of pollen (I will also note if the bees are carrying into the hives fresh pollen on their legs.

Though on some later visits, depending on the time of year, I may be concentrating on certain thigs, like frames of brood or frames of honey. More about that in future posts.

Reverse brood boxes, or not? I think this management hive manipulation falls in the optional category, but as often happens not all beekeepers will agree with me, or not all beekeepers agree on the importance of conducting this reversal. This maneuver assumes that bees will more quickly go up in the hive to empty comb, versus down into empty comb.

Seasonal movement between boxes with the hive
The most common configuration for a honey bee hive consists of two brood boxes on the bottom of the hive, with honey supers placed above after the honey flow begins. After honey supers are removed in late summer, the bees and brood will be fairly equally distributed within the two brood boxes. In the fall with the onset of the fall nectar flow (asters & goldenrod) we will see more honey packed into the top brood box in preparation for winter, with a majority of the brood in the bottom box, along with some food stores. During winter the bees in the bottom box will consume the honey stores in the lower box, brood in that box will emerge, and the bees will then move up into the upper box, where most of the honey stores are now contained. We then find that in the early spring most of the bees, along with early eggs & brood, some stored pollen and remaining honey stores, are in the top box of the hive. And typically, the bottom box is empty.

What happens later in the spring?
The bees will need to move back down into the lower box, to utilize the empty comb in those frames to rear brood, and to begin storing new honey & pollen to feed the larvae as part of this spring increase of the bee population. The question remains: Will they move down on their own? There is no doubt they will. Last week I did a quick check in some of my hives, and in one found that the bees had already begun to move down into the lower box, and were rearing brood in that box. Below is a photograph of one of those frames. Note the bees & brood in the top half of the comb in the frame.

When I find that the bees have begun movement into the lower box on their own, I leave the lower box on the bottom, especially if they have begun rearing brood in that box. And I do NOT reverse the hive bodies. Why? Note the location of the bees & brood on this frame. They are in the top part of the frame. If I placed this and similar frames on top of what had been the upper box, there will be a gap of bees between this area of brood, and the bees in the box below. This is a possibility of dividing the hive’s cluster and might on cold nights allow the brood in this area to become damaged. By not reversing the hive bodies in this situation, I remove this possible damage.

Another reason I do like to reverse the hive bodies is because it leaves the lighter box on the top of the hive, and as spring progresses is easier on my back to set off this box to look into the box below. Versus each time lifting off the heavier box that formerly was in the top position.

So how do I go about reversing the hive bodies? Much as I begin any examination of a hive, I start with removing the outer & inner covers, and place the outer cover on the ground upside down. I lean the inner cover against the hive – I am just getting the outer cover out of the way.

By looking between the top box frames, I observe the top box is full of bees, or if I learn this by removing frames, and checking the top box further. I will then smoke the bees and insert my hive tool between the two hive bodies to break the seal between the boxes. The bees will have sealed this gap very tightly during the winter. After breaking the seal between the boxes, I then remove the top box, and place it “catty-cornered” upon the upside down lid (to prevent smashing of bees), which is the practice I always follow when setting a hive body with bees onto the ground.

I then check the bottom box. If the box appears to be empty of bees, I will remove this lower box as well, placing it on the ground. If there is debris on the bottom board, I will scrap it clean. I will then place the full (what at been) top box onto the bottom board, and then place the empty (what had been the bottom) box onto the now lower box. Replace the cover. I have now reversed the hive bodies of the hive. I return the covers to my hive, put the brick back on and I am done.

On advising beekeepers to look into their hives, I always say, “First, light your smoker.” I often hear – even from people who have had bees for a year or more – “I always have trouble with that” or, “I can’t keep it lit.” Then we have a smoker lesson. This post will be a smoker lesson.

First step: lighting the smoker. Start by lighting the smoker when it is empty, or almost empty; do not try to light one full of fuel. I wad up a piece of newspaper (about one forth of a double page sheet) or any scrap paper, place it in the bottom of the smoker, and use a large kitchen match, or lighter to light the paper. Though a match you can drop into the smoker. Then I place another, similar size piece of paper on top of the lit one. The hive tool is handy for moving lit materials around inside the smoker. Next, I add my starter fuel – in my case, wood chips. – as in pet bedding I sprinkle a handful on top of the lit paper. (If you just dump them in, the flaming paper may go out.) I wait a bit, to let the wood chips ignite, then add more, once again sprinkling them on. There are several fuels which can be used as alternatives to wood chips: small pieces of burlap (about 5″x 5″ works well), dried grass clippings, pine needles, or even leaves. Any natural material which ignites quickly will work. When using some of these fuels, like burlap, you can skip the paper stage and just light the burlap.

As the materials catch, I pump the bellows to give the fire air. I then SLOWLY add more fuel, let it ignite, and pump the bellows until the smoker is about 1/2 to 2/3 full of burning fuel.  As I said, there are a number of good fuel choices but, for starting the smoker, you want something which will ignite quickly. I pump the bellows until fire comes out of the top of the smoker. The smoker is now lit. The next challenge is to keep it going.

Next step: topping off the smoker. At this point, I like to add broken up pieces of bark – personal choice.  I add the bark a little at a time and pump the bellows as I put pieces into the smoker until it is almost full.

In addition to its availability, I like bark because, though it takes it a while to catch fire, it will burn for hours once it does. I just need to pump the bellows every once in a while. Once I have it lit in this manner, I can leave my smoker sitting for half an hour or longer, then just pump the bellows to get it going again. I’ve used other long burning fuels as well, such as walnut shells, sumac seed pods, and small pieces of wood. As an alternative to any of the above, finer materials such as wood chips or burlap, loosely packed in the smoker until it is almost full, will stay lit long enough to check a few hives. Just do not pack it tightly, and remember to pump the smoker as you add the additional fuel.

Once the smoker is well lit and loaded with fuel, I close the lid. When I pump the bellows gently, I can see smoke drifting out of the spout. You do NOT want fire to come out of the spout while you’re using the smoker on your hives. If the top 1/3 is full of loosely packed fuel, you should see nothing but cool smoke.

Using the smoker: When I first approach the hive, I gently puff smoke from one side of the hive entrance to the other, just to let them know I’m on my way in.

Then, I remove the outer and inner covers and, on the “up wind” side of the hive top, pump the bellows and let smoke drift across the frames. Usually, I don’t point the spout directly into the hive, but let the air currents move the smoke across it. However, if there is no wind, I angle the smoker down and move it over the top of the hive while pumping the bellows gently and directing the smoke into the frames as shown in the pictures above and below. If the smoker is well lit, it doesn’t take a lot of pumping to smoke the hive.

I find that, often, the only time I need to smoke a hive is when I first open it. If the bees fly at my veil or if I receive what I consider to be unprovoked stings, I’ll smoke them again as often as needed. But as long as they remain calm, once is enough. You might wonder, if so little smoke is needed, why smoke them at all or even light the smoker? It has been my experience that, if I do not initially smoke the hive, the bees will react at some time during my visit. If the smoker isn’t ready and I decide that I need it at some point, I have to stop what I’m doing to light it. I recomend smoking the bees when you first open the hive, then proceeding based on how they react.

Review: Lighting a smoker is as much an art as a science. Every experienced beekeeper has his or her own methods, tricks, and favorite fuels. I’ve just shared mine, and you will develop your own. Just remember the basic steps: start your smoker with a small fire, add natural fuel a little at at time, and pump the bellows as you get the fire going. Once it is burning well, with lots of smoke and fire coming out the top, top it off with more fuel. Take your time. I occasionally have trouble keeping my smoker lit too, but it is always because I hurried to light it and did not get it lit WELL.

Many or most beginning beekeepers “suit up”, meaning that they wear so much protective clothing that they can’t be stung (or think they can’t.) Why smoke the bees, then, if you’re already protected? If you don’t smoke the hive, the bees will likely become agitated at some point, flying at your veil (popping your veil as we say), making your time with them less pleasant than if you had used smoke. In addition, they can sting through most coveralls and gloves, though you may not feel the stings as much. (There are truly sting proof coveralls available, but they become very hot as the weather gets warmer). Also, agitated bees may sting pets or, if you have a small yard, neighbors. So light your smoker and use it. It is a good beekeeper’s tool.

Photos by Mary Carney.

I have known Kent Williams for over 25 years. I recall our first meeting, though I can’t remember exactly where I met Kent. At a KSBA beekeeping meeting - somewhere in Kentucky. Likely at a University of Kentucky county extension office in a rural Kentucky county where the meeting was being held.  I have memories of Kent and I standing outside discussing Buckfast queens. I recently ran across this YouTube video of Kent discussing his beekeeping operation and teaching other beekeepers in his beekeeping school. Kent is joined in the video by several other beekeepers from Western Kentucky & elsewhere in this vide. Kent looks much the same as when I first met him all those years ago, big & burly, though like myself greyer, especially the hair on hie face. Kent maintains several hundred hives in Western, Kentucky and Mississippi, he also send hives to California each year to pollinate almonds.

Kent operates his hives in Kentucky and Mississippi, is a EAS (Eastern Apicultural Society) Master Beekeeper, and sends hives to California to pollinate almonds most years. Each spring he, and his family host the Kent Williams Beekeeping School on his farm in Wingo, Kentucky. This year this event will be held from April 20 - 22nd. For more information go to the Lake Barkley Beekeepers Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/3362410497305768/?ref=newsfeed, or you can call Chuck Williams at The Bee Barn, in Paducah, Kentucky - (270) 519-4772 for more information. Film of last year’s school is shown in the video. The school is hands on, meaning you get to work in hives, is free, but donations to cover food is welcome. I have been told that the food is excellent. Maybe Western Kentucky barbeque?  I plan to travel to Wingo for this years school.

I think you will enjoy this video about Kent. so watch & listen to Kent talk about his beekeeping journey. This YouTube video was created by Eric Manning

It is not quite spring yet, but it is warm out there - in the 60s°F today & likely into the 70s tomorrow at my house south of Lexington. I suspect hive lids are coming off all over Kentucky this week. While we need to be careful about opening our hives this time of year, one advantage of living in the upper south is that we normally get some warmer days throughout the winter. The beekeeping books, and as I advise beekeepers, say don’t open hives unless it is above 50°F, and better if above 60°F.  And I also say better if a sunny days, without a cold wind blowing. Though there is not a problem with taking the lids off hives if a little below 50 (if it is not raining) to quickly do such tasks as removing miticide strips, or inserting sugar patties. In fact I did just this with my hives on such a day in early January (I think it was right around 50°F that day) to insert Apivar strips (for varroa mite control) and to place sugar patties into my colonies.  This hive opening also served as an early inspection, though I did not pull any frames out. Just by removing the outer & inner cover I learned that the bees were alive and had survived the winter up to that point. What I learned:

• The size of the cluster, some almost filled the top box, others had at least covered about 6 frames – okay for early January. 
• Lifting (hefting) the entire hive from the rear tell me that that all were fairly heavy, though I still added winter sugar patties (which I purchased from a local bee supply store, though you can make your own, or even put loose table sugar on top of the inner cover.) I consider the patties insurance – “just in case they need the feed”). I do not worry about them going hungry.

Since that day, I have been re-checking the sugar patties every two to three weeks. This also again gives me the opportunity to observe the cluster. I had one hive, a nuc that I purchase last June, that wintered fine in only one deep box. When I checked the patties in that hive a few days ago the bees pretty much filled the box, so I added another deep box with drawn comb that I had. I will see if they are doing anything in that new box in a few days.

Note the bees covering the frames - the "cluster", also there are some paper shreds from the winter patty that I placed on the hive. I have since added a second deep to this colony.

In a future post I will talk about what to look for when we remove frames from the brood boxes & inspect them.

From Phil Craft to beekeepers

I have a long history of communicating with beekeepers. For many years I have been invited to speak at beekeepers’ meetings from my local Bluegrass Beekeepers Association meetings (in Lexington), throughout Kentucky, and nationally. While serving Kentucky’s beekeepers as the State Apiarist (1999 through 2011) I spent a lot of time on the telephone and in emails answering questions & providing information to beekeepers, in addition to helping in-person while attending the many beekeeping meetings. For many years I wrote a monthly beekeeping newsletter titled ‘The Buzz’ that was produced and distributed by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. After retiring from the KDA, I created (with a lot of help from my friend Barry Richards) a personal beekeeping webpage, PhilCraftHiveCraft.com. In addition to the evolving educational content on that webpage, I invited email questions & offered public and private responses to them. From 2013 through the spring of 2018, I penned a Question-and-Answer column in Bee Culture magazine, “Ask Phil”. Many of the columns are still available out in hyperspace. If you use a search engine like Google you can find them; just search ‘Ask Phil, Bee Culture magazine’, and you can even add a specific beekeeping subject in your search.

In more recent years I have served as a consultant for Veto-pharma, a French beekeeping pharmacological company best known for Apivar, serving as their North America technical adviser. This position extended my travels throughout North America and into Europe, where I visited beekeepers and attended and spoke at state and national meetings, and answered  international questions from beekeepers.

In early 2022, while continuing to work for Veto-pharma mostly from home, I made the decision to pretty much stop traveling for work, and work more at being retired - but not completely, I still work from home a few hours a week for Veto-pharma. I wanted to stay home, and not travel, where I could spend more time with my bees and my family. Being at home with more leisure time allowed me to become more involved with my local beekeeping group, as well as the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association, where I took on the role of KSBA Education Coordinator. This position allows me to provide educational opportunities for Kentucky beekeepers, including recruiting speakers for state meetings and conducting online beekeeping classes, which have been recorded and can be found on the KSBA website.

This history leads us to this online KSBA webpage forum. Here I will continue this communication with beekeepers, discussing beekeeping and honeybee topics as well as answering questions via email. I may even wander away from honeybees from time to time. Many beekeepers are also interested in other insects - “bugs” - as am I. I have also collected a large number of interesting photographs throughout my travels that I would be happy to share with you as well.

If you have a beekeeping question feel free to email me and I will email you back an answer.

So come back. In the next post I will talk about honey bees & beekeeping.

Phil Craft