Advanced Beekeeping 301
Introduction: Package Bee Production
Many individual beekeepers seeking an additional source of
income should consider selling package bees. The commercial package
bee industry of the United States is located primarily in the Southern states
and California. However, it is entirely possible for beekeepers to produce
small numbers of packages from strong hives in the north.
There may be a stronger incentive since the postal service has put restrictions
on shipping bees in the United States.
While much has been written about raising queens, very little has been written about methods used to shake packages of honey bees. As an experienced package producer with experience in Georgia and Ohio, I will provide you with information to produce packages bees for your own operation.
General Comments:
Lets take a look at what is needed. #1 and most important Strong healthy hives of bees. A colony of bees will usually cast at least one swarm per year. For a very strong colony, I have seen swarms in Georgia as early as late February and normal during March and April. For Ohio, we see swarms in mid April and normal during May and into June. The person producing package bees deals with the swarm control issue by selling those extra bees rather than watching them fly away into the far reaches of the trees.
For the package producer, good queens are necessary. Package management begins in the fall of the year regardless of a southern or northern location. Hives are often requeened in the fall of the year with young vigorous queens. The young queen will produce larger patterns of brood than an older queen and thus more bees. The hive must be stimulated with sugar syrup or corn syrup at least two months before packages are to be shook. For Georgia, that means feeding begins in January and continues until the bees are able to bring in nectar from foraging. For Ohio, that means feeding begins in February and continues until the bees are bringing in nectar. In both cases, a pollen substitute is sometimes used along with the additional feed.
Bees are removed from hives during late March and April in the South. The honey flow comes on in Mid April in Georgia and shaking bees from hives at this time creates a problem of shaking frames of bees that contain high moisture nectar. The bees get very sticky and funnels used must be washed continuously because the bees will not slide down the funnel but stick to its sides. Ohio bees are best shook from mid April thru May.
Equipment and supplies that are needed:
A funnel - Bees are put into packages with a large funnel. A funnel can be round, square, or rectangular. Most are made from sheet metal. The top of the funnel must be at least 19 inches across to accommodate the standard Langstroth frame. The nozzle of the funnel must fit the hole in the package box top which is usually 4 or 4 1/4 inches in size.
The type of funnel that we use is round and light weight. We went to a local tin smith who made this in about an hour. The top of the funnel was rolled around a heavy wire to reinforce the strength of the upper lip and the body of the funnel was made from standard sheet metal used for house duct work. Everything was spot welded together. The cost for the funnel was about $40.00.
The Package
The types of packages in which bees are sold vary from producer to producer. Most are made up over the winter and ready for bees by spring. If one is selling only a few packages, used packages might serve well. Many beekeepers have these around because they bought bees at one time or another. On the other hand, they are quite easy to build. The key piece of equipment is a hole saw for the can opening in the top of the package. If you are planning on producing only few packages, the hole could be made with a hand jig saw.
A standard three pound package is 16 inches long and 5 1/2 inches wide. As the diagram shows, you will need a top with a hole 4 to 4 1/4 inches to accept the syrup can. The bottom piece is solid. The ends are 8 inches by 5 1/2 inches wide. The "H" support that goes into the middle of the cage is made from 3/4 inch stock. The size of it will depend on the size of can one uses. A two pound cage is built exactly like the three pound cage with the exception that it is 12 inches across the top rather than 16 inches across the top.
Standard wire screen is used for the open sides on the package. Black metal wire allows one to see the bees a bit better than aluminum wire but under no conditions should plastic substitute wire be used. The wire is usually stapled to the box with thin strips of wood covering the outside wire and providing a surface for the staple to hold the screen wire a bit better.
The Can
Commercial package producers usually have a can sealer machine that takes filled cans with syrup and the lid is sealed in place with a standard lid sealer. These are available but are moderately expensive. This can is usually 4 inches wide and hold just less than a quart of syrup. For the individual making up 50 packages or so, we would recommend the 4 1/4 inch quart paint can as an alternative. These are readily available and are found under container sales in most large city phone books. For the person selling just a few packages, we would recommend that you save plastic containers that are about a quart in size. If the customer does not have far to go and is going to install the package immediately, no can is needed. However, you can brush or spray sugar water on the outside of the cage to give the bees something to survive on for a short time. The lid of the can is punched with two or three very small holes so the bees can get the syrup. The syrup will not run out of the can as long as there are no holes in other parts of the can.
A Lid for the package box
A lid is needed to hold the can in the package and also to prevent the escape of bees when the can is removed. This is usually 1/4 inch thick 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 square. Some package producers use cardboard for the lid.
A queen!!
Packages are sold with a queen. You will need to purchase queens to go into your packages or raise queens to go into them. A queen can easily represent 1/4 the cost of the package. Commercial package producers in the south usually raise their own queens. In the north, the package producers usually buy their queens. One advantage of selling just a few packages is the ability to order a particular type of queen for your customer. Remember, its not the kind of bees in the package that counts. It is the queen. The bees in the package will most likely be dead in another 40 days. The features of a package hive is that the population will decrease until the eggs the queen lays begin to emerge as adult bees. Once this population begins to grow, the package hive is on its way to success. The bees in the package are important to gather pollen and nectar to feed and take care of the young brood as well as build wax comb. Any delay -- such as queen loss -- will result in the possible death of the package hive unless the problem is recognized early by the beekeeper and a new queen is introduced ASAP. The young bees will be of the stock represented by the queen not by the bees in the package.
Steps in package bee production
As was mentioned earlier, we need to have very strong hives of good healthy bees. Almost every state requires individuals selling bees to have some type of inspection before the bees are sold. This is particularly true if the bees are to be shipped out of state. If the decision has been made to sell bees then you should be familiar with the rules and regulations of your state Apiary Laws. All diseased colonies should be treated. For example, almost everyone has problems with mites. Treat your bees for mites. It is good to fed Fumidil B with the sugar syrup to provide the customer with a good healthy bee. Also you need to eliminate American foulbrood from your colonies! The easy way is to eliminate any colony with AFB. Many commercial operations feed Terramycin to their bees both fall and spring.
Lets assume that you have your packages ready. The cans of syrup ready and your queens ordered for delivery. Lets also assume you have customers for packages.
Package bee production is more certain in the south for several reasons. First, the climate is favorable for an early start. Bees are gathering nectar and pollen and bee populations are way ahead of any hives in the north. Second, queen production is early enough for the April demand for packages by northern beekeepers. To raise queens requires an adequate population of drones of the right age to mate with virgin queens. For early queens, this only occurs in warmer areas of the U.S. Package producers in the south, generally are taking bees out of their hives by early March to build up queen nuc's. Most hives of bees can spare two or three frames of bees and brood at this time of the year to make up the nuc's.
How much feed will a strong hive take? A strong hive of bees will empty a division board feeder filled with 1/2 gal. of syrup in one day. A one gallon bucket is not going to be enough. Most commercial beekeepers have a truck with a syrup tank on it make the rounds every two or three days. A strong colony can easily go through a gallon of syrup in a week. The colony may need as much as five gallons of syrup minimum during spring build-up. More would be recommended.
The hive shown on the left is a Georgia hive in early March. The top super
has been removed and sits next to the bottom super. Notice the
number of bees present. This is what a good hive of bees should look like
early in the season. Bee will be shook from this hive in approximately 30
days. A hive in this condition needs lots of feed to keep up brood
production and prevent starvation. Supers may be added to provide
additional room if needed. At this time it is
important to find the queen and mark her. She is then placed in the bottom
brood super, and a queen excluder is placed on the hive to prevent her from
going into the upper super which may or may not contain brood.
This is an excellent time to place two frames of foundation into the bottom super with the queen and raise two frames of brood up into the upper box or to make up a queen nuc. There is always a danger that a strong hive like the one shown in the picture may get swarm fever and head to the woods. Placing new foundation in the brood chamber gives the worker bees something to work on and provides extra room for the queen to lay. This can be done almost every week during the swarm season.
Once the queen has been confined to the bottom brood box with a queen excluder, the beekeeper must be alert to the crowding conditions in the hive. Within a week, packages are ready to be shook from this hive. Bees for the package are taken only from the boxes above the queen excluder. Warning: if you see eggs above the queen excluder a week after putting the queen down, she has found a way up thru the excluder. You will need to check all frames for the queen or you will shake her into the package with the bees. This is not good for the package (she is an older queen) and it is certainly not good for the hive because no new brood is going to be raised during the package season. Any queen placed into a package with bees will result in the death of the introduced queen placed into the package with her and her bees.
Bees will tend to cluster with the queen in the bottom brood chamber to keep the brood warm on chilly days. If the upper box contains no brood, most likely 95 % of the bees may be in the bottom chamber keeping warm. We have found that the best way to get the bees into the upper box is to smoke the entrance to get the bees moving up thru the queen excluder. This happens quickly on a warm day but is slow on a cool day. The bees will move better if a few drops of BeeGo are added to the smoker fuel. A very strong hive will yield a good three pound package of bees without causing any harm. That same hive in two weeks will be ready to be shook again. It is a waste of time to try to shake bees from weak colonies. A weak colony needs every bee it can get to grow in strength.
The commercial package producer must come up with hundreds of packages in a single day. Each producer has a system to save time. It is generally agreed that it takes one person for every 50 packages to be shook in a day. The day starts early and doesn't end until late in the day. If queens must be located before the bees in a hive can be shook from it, fewer packages can be expected per person. For a person selling only a few packages (Let me say that it makes no difference if a person is shaking one package or 100 packages) the process is the same.
If only a few packages are going to be shook in a day, I would suggest that you wait until past noon to start getting the bees from the hives. By that time, the bees will most likely started to move about the hive and go on foraging flights. The bees are easier to work as well. If you work hives early or late, you will find the bees to be disagreeable. I don't like working with gloves and as a result, always come home with 100 stings or more to show for my days effort. Wearing gloves reduces the stinging problem.
Procedure
We are going to show you through a number of pictures of how this work is accomplished.
The
first step is to remove the top cover from the hive or hives to be shook.
We have found that if we remove the top covers of all the hives to be shook in a
yard, the bees will come up into the top super to protect it from robbing
bees. It addition bees are not flying about to steal other hive's
honey as robber bees-- they stay home to protect themselves. Robbing can
be a problem when little nectar is coming into the hives. Notice that the
hives illustrated in the photo are 1 and 1/2 story hives. It really
doesn't make much difference if it is a one and a half story hive or a two story
hive as long as each hive has a queen excluder keeping the queen in the bottom
box.
The second step is blowing smoke into the entrance of the hive and just a light smoking of the top of the hive to remind the bees to stay on the frames rather than to fly up and get in your face.
The
picture to the right shows Billy Engle shaking a frame of bees into his
funnel. Notice that his funnel is rectangular shaped and the exact top dimensions
of a standard hive body. It is supported by legs on a stand. Single frames
can be shook into it or a complete shallow super can be shook into it -- which
he sometimes does if the super is not filled with honey. A frame is
held as Billy is holding this frame over the funnel. The frame is given a
sharp shake to dislodge the bees. The bees free of the comb drop into the
funnel and slide down into the cage below.
This
is a thumbnail picture to save downloading time. You may click on it to
enlarge and get a better idea of what the bees look like as they are shook into
the cage. Notice that the neck of the nozzle of the funnel
extends down into the cage. The reason for this is to prevent the bees
from climbing back out of the cage as the bees are dumped into the package
cage. They want to climb upwards. They use the screen wire to
climb up and then form a cluster at the top of the cage rather than climbing
down the nozzle and back out of the cage and up into the funnel.
One must weigh cages to get an idea of what a typical cage weight is. Once this is arrived at, and the bees are shook into the cage, the cage can be weighed. Many commercial producers do not weigh cages but have a very good idea of how many bees are in the cage and always try to put extra bees to make sure an honest weight is arrived at. We have found that scales carried into the bee yard are not always accurate. Generally, the "H" support for the syrup can is a good indicator of the number of bees in the package. If the bees in the package are jarred to the bottom of the cage, and form a level clump of bees from side to side in the cage, the bees ought to come within 1/2 inch of the support bar under the can. A three pound package including the syrup can should weigh at least 8 1/2 pounds.
When a package is shook, the job is not over. Syrup can and the queen need to be added to the package. This can be done in the bee yard or packages can be transported back to the "shop" where this is done. Commercial package producers have a garden sprayer filled with a light mixture of sugar water to spray packages while the bees are waiting for their new queen and syrup supply. The bees in the package must be kept in the shade and as cool as possible. If left in the sun, the bees in the package will quickly die.
Sounds to listen for:
If bees in a package are quiet and well clustered, you have nothing to worry about. However, when shaking bees, the bees are undergoing a great deal of stress. It is normal for them to scurry about inside the package box. When the package cage is filled with either the 2 pounds of bees or the 3 pounds of bees, it needs to be placed in the shade. Here the bees will begin to cluster. If the day is hot, the bees will run around inside the package making a considerable roar. This is not good. Water can be sprayed on the package to cool the bees inside. When I say spray the package, I don't mean the full force of a water hose. A light spray of water --not enough to knock bees down -- is about right. You will notice an immediate change in the sound of the package.
Some very important points about package bees............................
Some pictures from our film library:::::::::::::
One good reason for selling package bees
A commercial crew getting ready to shake bees.
This
is a photo of Sonny Swords and Grandville Youmans loading a package order onto a
customers trailer.
Package bees undergo stress during any movement of the package. Moving bees require attention to details:
Keep bees from direct wind blowing into the package. Build a head board and
side boards for your truck or trailer before getting the bees. The
top should be open for good ventilation.
Protect bees from heat and extreme cold.
Vehicle hauling the bees should be in top mechanical condition.
Avoid a rough ride for the bees. Trailers without shocks and springs for
example.
Always be prepared for unexpected weather. Some package producers do not
shake bees in the rain. Your selected pick-up date may be delayed because
of weather. Be sure to provide some protection for the bees from heavy
downpours of rain. Light rain might be beneficial. Always call
ahead before you drive several hundred miles to get bees. Ask the package
producer for some help and ideas for hauling your packages.
If you are picking up 200 packages of bees, what size of trailer would you need?
Lets assume you have a trailer with a bed 6 foot wide (72 inches) and 15 1/2 foot long (186 inches). We know that three pound packages are 16 inches in length and 5 1/2 inches wide. However, we must allow ventilation space between each package of approximately the width of a single package (5 1/2 inches). So we can put from 6 to 7 packages per row across the width of the trailer. The first package should be at least 3 inches from any side wall and can fit against the head wall of a trailer. Packages must have cross ventilation.
If our headwall and sidewalls are four foot high as a standard sheet of plywood would be, then we can stack the packages five high although 4 would be preferable. We might get six high but would be wise to add another strip of wood around the top to direct wind away from the cages. Thus each row across could have from 24 packages with 6 inch spacing to 28 packages with 5 inch spacing stacked four high. We get that number by multiplying the number of packages in each row by the number of rows high. For example, 6 packages on each level, times 4 levels high.
Then we need to determine how many rows back we can put on the trailer. This is done by dividing either 12 inches for two pound packages or 16 inches for three pound packages into the total length of the trailer. In this case the length is 186 inches long. We can get 15 rows of two pound packages on the length of the trailer. 15 times 24 packages equals 360 two pound packages. Or 11 rows of three pound packages which is 11 times 24 or 264 three pound packages. As you can see, this 15 1/2 foot trailer would be adequate for hauling 200 packages without any problems of having to squeeze packages onto the load.