The Hopkins methodology (and extra)

Synopsis : Three brief(ish) associated matters; the spring honey harvest, queen rearing with out grafting (the Hopkins methodology) and a short point out of swarm management. And, if that wasn’t sufficient, a bonus dialogue on conserving virgin queens in an incubator.

Introduction

I began scripting this publish at sundown on the longest day of the yr. In my a part of Scotland it’s mild sufficient to work exterior from about 3:30 am till 11:30 pm which suggests you will get rather a lot accomplished … when you have the power and distant, deaf or understanding neighbours.

With the nice climate we’ve had for the final 2-3 weeks the bees have been out effectively earlier than I’m consuming my morning espresso and don’t cease till after my night glass of Barolo.

In my expertise, a few of the earliest to begin are the scout bees that seem at bait hives earlier than foragers are actually busy. Some may even keep in a single day, although maybe these are scouts ‘misplaced’ from a swarm that had determined to occupy a distinct nest website .

It’s fortunate the times are as long as that is the busiest time of the yr for beekeeping … not less than for my beekeeping.

West coast apiary

I’m, because the saying goes, ”operating round like a headless hen”.

Fairly than write an in depth (effectively researched ) publish on an esoteric side of the coxa and trochanter of Apis mellifera scutellata or virus replication in drones (although I’d strongly suggest readers try our newest paper on this matter, printed at present) I assumed I’d write a couple of notes on three sensible beekeeping matters which were entertaining me not too long ago.

I can’t promise one thing for everybody, and even anybody, and inevitably the main focus might be on the trilogy of queen rearing, swarm management and the honey harvest.

Should you’re a beekeeper and haven’t been busy with these three issues over the previous few weeks then both one thing has gone awry along with your season … otherwise you reside in New Zealand.

Present me the honey

The chilly, late begin to Spring had me involved I used to be going to overlook the oil seed rape nectar stream fully. Not as a result of I used to be wanting bees however as a result of it was too chilly to forage.

The colonies had been actually sturdy sufficient:

Bee shed colony, mid-April

Right here’s one from mid-April within the bee shed. These colonies had been booming and had been the primary to want supers, the primary to have brood harvested for a cell raiser (see beneath) and the primary to want swarm management … and – whisper it – the first to swarm 🙁 .

Nonetheless, though the chilly begin delayed issues, every part just about caught up within the good climate from the second week of Might.

The honey was harvested in two batches in successive weeks in early/mid June. I’ve fewer honey manufacturing hives this yr, however the general harvest was inside a couple of kilograms of the file crop final yr.

For the primary time I measured the honey produced per hive, quite than merely pooling weights per apiary.

The typical was simply over 28 kg per hive, with the very best managing a bit over 45 kg . If my maths had been higher I may decide the median, the usual deviation and so on, however suffice to say most produced near the common, with a couple of outliers yielding above 40 kg or beneath 10 kg.

I made up my mind what every hive produced by labelling and weighing each tremendous earlier than and after extraction. Fairly persistently ~68% by weight of the total tremendous was honey, yielding ~10.8 kg of honey per tremendous.

The opposite factor notable concerning the honey harvest this season was that just one body ‘exploded’ within the extractor … noisy, messy and very wobbly 🙁 .

Queen rearing

For concerning the final 15 years I’ve primarily reared queens utilizing one in all two strategies involving a queenright hive; the Ben Harden system or a Cloake board.

These strategies provide an a variety of benefits to the small scale beekeeper wanting ‘a couple of’ queens – say 2-20, although you’ll be able to produce extra if wanted (by repetition).

The Ben Harden system begins and finishes the cells with the queen current (beneath a queen excluder) on a regular basis. The Cloake board (or the same Morris board which I’ve additionally used efficiently) renders the hive quickly ‘queenless’ for the 24 hours when the cells are being began. That is achieved by merely sliding a strong board between the queenright decrease and higher brood field, with the grafted larvae being added to the latter.

Morris board (higher face)

I exploit these strategies as a result of they work, they go well with my bees and beekeeping and since I’m very assured they’ll yield outcomes … however that doesn’t imply I’m averse to attempting one thing new.

Eoghan Mac Giolla Coda’s “easy methodology”

This spring I used a technique described by Eoghan Mac Giolla Coda in a BIBBA e-newsletter final summer season ’A Easy Methodology of Concurrently Elevating Queens and Producing Nuclei’. It’s best to learn the unique, however the fundamentals are easy:

• Put together a double nuc containing 10-12 frames of rising brood harvested from not less than 5-6 colonies
• It’s important that there’s no queen on this field 😉
• One week later undergo the field and take away each queen cell the bees have produced from larvae within the harvested frames
• Add your grafted larvae in a cell bar body
• Harvest capped queen cells 10 days later and cut up the 10-12 body ‘cell raiser’ nuc field as much as make particular person nucs, every of which receives a near-mature queen cell

As I stated … very easy.

And it labored fairly effectively, with the brood harvested from sturdy colonies (corresponding to that proven above) serving to to carry again their enthusiasm to swarm.

Modifications to the “easy methodology”

A mix of quite low grafting success and a need to attempt one other queen rearing methodology meant I butchered the ultimate stage of Eoghan Mac Giolla Coda’s “easy methodology”.

Because of time constraints I really checked the grafts simply 7 days after including them to the cell raiser. Since I grafted day-old larvae (i.e. 4 days because the egg was laid) they had been already capped (or rejected). Fairly extra had been rejected than I might have favored ( 🙁 ) however there have been half a dozen good cells. I used a pair instantly and positioned the spares in my transportable queen cell incubator … I’ll describe their destiny shortly.

So I once more had a queenless field overflowing with younger bees.

What a chance 🙂 .

Having eliminated the grafted queen cells I once more went by way of the complete field searching for any different queen cells.

There have been two or three runty little cells that I think had been began on very outdated larvae after my earlier run by way of the field every week earlier. It’s value noting right here that this field was filled with bees, so I once more wanted to shake the bees off each body to seek out these stunted queen cells.

I destroyed these and stuffed the area beforehand occupied by the cell bar body with one other body of rising brood.

After which I used to be able to attempt one thing new.

The Hopkins methodology of queen rearing

Many beekeepers just like the thought of queen rearing however are postpone by the emphasis positioned on grafting day-old larvae. They’re nervous concerning the fragility of very younger larvae, or fear about their eyesight or being insufficiently dextrous.

They shouldn’t be, however that doesn’t imply that they aren’t.

Grafting is simpler to do than to explain … however there are different methods of presenting larvae for queen rearing.

Roger Patterson is an enthusiastic advocate of cell punching. I’ve tried this and struggled, however intend to attempt once more. I feel the age of the comb must be ‘good’ for the cell punching to work effectively.

Nonetheless, cell punching additionally entails handbook choice of larvae by the beekeeper. Common readers will – in the event that they’ve accomplished their homework – know that the colony is very selective within the selection of larvae it rears queens from. They preferentially choose effectively nourished larvae and are biased in direction of the rarest patrilines in colony.

The Hopkins methodology of queen rearing entails presenting a body containing suitably aged larvae to a queenless colony. The bees then choose the larvae they need to rear queens from.

Guide dexterity and eyesight – or nervousness about grafting – are just about irrelevant.

So how does the Hopkins methodology differ from merely inserting a body of eggs and younger larvae in a colony suspected of being queenless?

The important thing distinction is that within the Hopkins methodology the larvae-containing body is introduced horizontally above the brood field, with area beneath it for the queen cells to be drawn out into.

And it simply so occurs that I’d been doing a little bit of winter DIY in preparation for this 🙂 .

Horizontal presentation of a body of larvae

The plain approach to current a body horizontally above a brood field was to switch an eke.

One of many Maisemore’s poly nucs – the mannequin with the separate ground – may be tailored to accommodate 14 x 12 frames utilizing an eke which in addition they promote.

Butchering an eke for the Hopkins methodology

I purchased a few these nucs within the winter, painted them a quite fetching inexperienced and used my Dremel to carve lug-sized areas within the acceptable place within the eke.

To offer lateral help for the horizontal body I additionally added a few screws on the within of the eke. There’s certainly a extra elegant means to do that, however ‘DIY’ and ‘elegant’ by no means seem in the identical sentence the place I’m involved .

I fastidiously chosen the proper place for the screw in order that it could help both shallow or deep frames horizontally. That was a mistake. A screw shut sufficient to the carved ‘body lug gap’ to help an excellent body doesn’t actually present sufficient help for a brood body. As an alternative I like to recommend including two help screws about an inch away from the place the underside bars of the body can be (when horizontal).

Modified eke (the bit beneath the blue line additionally must be minimize off)

With a body in place there’s a hole of 40-50 mm between the highest bars of the frames and the face of the horizontal comb … greater than sufficient for the biggest of queen cells.

However is it too distant for the bees to understand that there are larvae appropriate for queen rearing ‘simply above their heads’?

Right here’s one I didn’t put together earlier

The one body I had from my chosen larval ‘donor’ hive had a big patch of not too long ago sealed brood within the centre, with eggs and younger larvae on the periphery. This wasn’t perfect and mirrored poor preparation on my half.

The Hopkins methodology – horizontal body in situ

I ought to have added a body of drawn comb to my larval donor colony to generate a uniform inhabitants of equally aged larvae, and used 4 days after the queen had began laying in it.

Nonetheless, I didn’t have this, so used what I’d received … preferring an iffy body from a superb donor colony quite than an ideal body from an undesirable donor colony.

The Hopkins methodology

I checked the field every week later. I prised up the eke to discover a 3 cm deep carpet of bees hanging onto the underside of the added body … clearly they’d no drawback discovering the larvae.

A delicate investigation by blowing (exhaling, not smoke!) onto the packed bees confirmed good numbers of queen cells protruding from the comb.

A number of queen cells

Fairly too many to be sincere 🙁 … see beneath for tactics of avoiding this case.

I chosen 4 of the queen cells based mostly upon their measurement and separation from different cells, minimize them from the body utilizing a scalpel and made up three body nucs into which I inserted the excised cells.

Excised queen cells

The cells had been secured in place by merely making a thumb-sized indent within the face of opposing combs after which pushing the frames gently collectively, trapping the cells in place by the beneficiant collar of comb I’d excised them with.

Subsequent time I do that I’ll use cocktail sticks pushed by way of the empty comb above the protruding queen cell to safe issues.

An excessive amount of of a superb factor

By letting the bees select the larvae to begin queens from they began too many. Many queen cells had been very shut collectively making excision nigh on unimaginable.

There are two methods I’ve seen of avoiding this:

• destroying 2/3 of cells and their contents by drawing the sharp level of a hive software by way of the comb (see the sample beneath left).
• plugging the specified cells with a Q-tip (cotton bud) and shaking icing sugar over the remainder of the body (beneath proper). The sugar-exposed cell contents are killed, the cotton buds are eliminated and the body is inverted over the cell builder.

The Hopkins methodology – decreasing queen cell numbers (click on for particulars)

I tried the previous however did a much less thorough job than I ought to have. The thought is to depart particular person well-spaced larvae of the proper age for queen rearing.

After all, each these strategies cut back the selection the bees have when deciding on larvae … that’s the complete level. Nonetheless, they might additionally end result within the exclusion of larvae that the bees would have preferentially chosen because the ‘greatest’ from which to rear new queens.

Swings and roundabouts … 😉 .

Inevitably a few of the queen cells produced had been instantly adjoining to others. Though I largely prevented these when making up nucs, I’m not too involved {that a} 2-3 body nuc would swarm if supplied with two queen cells … more likely is that one queen emerges first and slaughters the opposite in situ, leaving only one within the field.

Benefits and drawbacks

I feel there are two very important benefits of utilizing the Hopkins methodology for rearing queens mixed with Eoghan Mac Giolla Coda’s “easy methodology” of making ready the cell elevating colony.

• Finished on the acceptable time, the harvesting of a few brood frames from sturdy colonies helps maintain these again and delays swarm preparation. A few of my strongest colonies had been used to donate two frames for this and have subsequently yielded one other two frames for nuc preparation. These colonies produced 28-35 kg of honey and nonetheless haven’t proven indicators of swarming .
• There’s no grafting or manually-demanding manipulations wanted. No +4.00 diopter studying glasses are wanted or propranolol to regular your ‘grafting arm’ 😉 . The exclusion of larvae utilizing one of many two strategies proven above must be manageable by anybody in a position to discriminate staff from drones.

You possibly can add to this the benefit {that a} sturdy 10-12 body nuc must be adequate to rear 24-48 queens (not less than) from a suitably ready donor body.

Nonetheless, that is likely to be too many and you possibly can think about it overkill for a ‘small scale’ apiarist.

However you don’t want to make use of all of them and there are all the time individuals wanting queens 😉 .

The opposite disadvantages I see are that:

• You want an affordable variety of hives to reap brood from to make up the cell raiser.
• The ensuing queen cells are harder to excise, deal with and safe within the nucs you put together.

These queen cells in all probability have for use as quickly as they’re prepared. In distinction, cells generated from larvae grafted into the Nicot cup system are a doddle to deal with and you’ll even maintain a couple of spare virgins ‘on faucet’ if wanted … as described subsequent.

Right here’s one I did put together earlier

Lastly I’ll return to the ‘spare’ queen cells that I faraway from the cell raiser seven days after grafting.

These cells had been comparatively not too long ago capped and I didn’t anticipate them to emerge for a couple of days. I positioned them into my transportable queen cell incubator on Monday night and set off again for the west coast with them.

Transportable queen cell incubator

They stayed within the incubator at a gentle 34.5°C for the remainder of the week and emerged someday late on Friday, a couple of hours sooner than I’d anticipated (the larvae had been presumably a couple of hours older than I’d thought).

In distinction to what many beekeepers suppose, virgin queens are in a position to feed themselves. I think they’ve to do that quickly after emergence earlier than hormone ranges are adequate to draw an attentive retinue of staff.

Subsequent time you get the prospect observe the completely different quantities of consideration a mated and a virgin queen obtain … it’s very hanging.

Right here’s one I produced earlier

All of which signifies that for those who present a little bit of diluted honey to a caged virgin queen and maintain her in a moist environment at ~34°C she’s going to feed herself and be OK.

TLC

I simply add a small drop of diluted honey (~50/50 with water) to the internal aspect fringe of the cap of the Nicot cage. Don’t overdo it … you don’t need her to get right into a sticky mess throughout transport. As well as, make sure that the surroundings is sufficiently humid by conserving a small piece of damp kitchen towel within the incubator. Don’t let the queens turn into desiccated.

I took the emerged queens again to Fife, transferred them to JzBz introduction cages and put them into nucs on the Monday. I hope they’re mated once I return early subsequent week 🙂 .

These queens spent ~72 hours (after emergence) within the incubator. I additionally did this final yr with a few queens that spent 4-5 days within the incubator. Nonetheless, I’m conscious that some report issues getting these ‘delayed virgins’ accepted and mated. I would like to research this additional.

My transportable queen cell incubator has very correct temperature regulation and excessive humidity. It offers little different safety. Specifically, it’s not cushioned towards the jolting and jarring encountered through the journey from Fife to the west coast, involving dozens of miles of a few of the worst maintained roads Highland Council are ‘accountable’ for . It was due to this fact encouraging that the comparatively ‘immature’ sealed cells I transported (in all probability 2-3 days post-capping) yielded apparently healthy-looking queens.

Bear in mind all that recommendation you get to ‘by no means shake a body with queen cells on it’ ?

😉

Notes

I’ll write a extra in depth account of the Hopkins methodology of rearing queens in the end. Beesource has a brief article on the historical past of the strategy, which dates again to 1911, right here.

I’ve thought of constructing a modified cell bar body to take grafted larvae positioned above the highest bars in the identical eke I butchered for the Hopkins methodology described above. It’s clear the bees haven’t any issues discovering the larvae and it could maximise the variety of brood frames throughout the field for subsequent splitting up into nuclei. Nonetheless, the pinnacle area is inadequate so as to add Nicot cages to the sealed cells, so negating one of many main benefits of grafting into cups. In a robust nectar stream I’d wager the bees would have a wild time constructing brace comb round them.