Honey Production  Basics

Everything done up to the honey flow is done to ensure a strong foraging population in a hive of bees. 

Management for a honey crop actually begins in the fall of the year.  Strong hives gather large amounts of nectar.  Weak hives generally manage to sustain themselves and produce very little surplus honey. So the beekeeper looking to get a good crop of honey must do everything prior to the honey flow.

Do you know the approximate date you must have your bees ready to gather the major nectar flow in your area?  You need to find out.  The timing of this event varies across this country and it varies within some smaller areas.  Many states have multiple honey (nectar) flows and some areas rely only on one flow.  The state of Georgia for example has such a variety of nectar crops that produce select varieties of honey that a beekeeper must plan for each crop.   By moving hives of bees from one crop to another is highly profitable.  

In other areas such as Ohio, the beekeeper is faced with the possibility of two flows at the most.   And in areas with a shorter growing season the beekeeper is faced with only one major flow.

Lets take a look at what a beekeeper must do to prepare for a nectar (honey) flow.  Notice that I have been using both nectar and honey flow interchangeably.   The correct term is nectar flow -- however the term honey flow is in common usage and I will use both.

• If the honey (nectar) flow is early -- such as black locust the beekeeper must have the hives built up strong as early as possible.   This may require feeding hives to stimulate brood production and the feeding of a pollen substitute.
• All hives of bees must be at their strongest to produce a good crop.   This is done by frequent inspection for good brood patterns  and the replacement of queens if necessary.  It also requires that the beekeeper is alert to bee diseases.  Any disease weakens a hive.
• It pays to have fewer strong colonies than many weak colonies.  Too often a beekeeper is in a hurry to increase hive numbers.  If a honey crop is expected, then the beekeeper might begin combining weak hives with hives that are fair but not strong.  One might also switch the location of a weak hive with a strong hive if the hive with the weak population has a good queen (one you have replaced just recently).
• If the beekeeper is wanting to increase the number of colonies he/she has, it would be better to take only one frame of bees and brood from a number of hives and build slowly rather than splitting all the hives at one time.   If the honey flow comes later in the year, splitting makes sense.
• The beekeeper must have a plan to prevent swarming.  The beekeeper must provide adequate space for brood production and honey storage.   A swarm defeats all the effort put into getting a hive of bees ready for the honey crop.

Supering bees for the honey flow/nectar flow

   Supering is defined as adding supers (boxes for honey storage).  These supers are added above the brood chamber either with or without a queen excluder.

    Two types of supering are practiced by beekeepers -- top supering and bottom supering.

Top Supering

Top supering is a common practice among many beekeepers.   As a hive needs additional supers they are added one on top of another. Super (A) is placed on the hive.  Super (B) is placed above super (A) as shown on the left. When it is time to add a third super we are calling (C), it is added above super (B).  The bees will work their way up into the supers placed on the hive.  This is the easiest and quickest way to add supers.  If all supers are added at one time, the bees may fill frames near the middle of the stack and not fill outside frames.  This is called the "chimney" effect.

Bottom supering

Bottom supering is always placing the new empty super just above the brood nest.  This requires that the beekeeper remove supers that are filled with honey from the hive, place the empty honey super on the hive, and then replace all full or partly full supers back on the hive.  Notice that the super labeled (A) was the first super placed on the hive.  When the bees had filled it with honey and 3/4 of the frames were capped, a new super (B) was added below (A).  When this super was nearly full and capped, super (C) the third super was added.  It is claimed that bees will move up into the empty new super faster because the honey in the upper supers draw them into the new honey super.  When adding new foundation to a hive you have helped the bees by putting this new super with foundation in the warmest place fore wax builders to work -- just above the brood chamber.  Adding new foundation above all the supers as in top supering will result in comb not being completely drawn out.

Additional points about supering:

• A good working guide for adding supers is to examine a honey super on the hive to see if the bees are filling it with nectar.  If 3/4 of the cells are being filled with nectar it is time to add a super.
• It is better to super early rather than late.
• If supering with new foundation, use  10 frames to the honey super.  If you leave too much of a space between frames of new foundation, the bees will build burr comb between the foundation such as when you place only 8 frames in a 10 frame honey super.  Some beekeepers have used 9 instead of 10 frames of new  foundation in a honey super successfully.  
• Bees can be encouraged into a new super with new foundation by adding two frames of drawn comb in the center of the honey super.
• Many beekeepers use only 8 or 9 frames (drawn frames of foundation) in honey supers.  The bees will pull the cells further out from the comb to fill the space between frames.  The result is: a) You get just as much honey from 8 frames as you would 10; b) you have fewer frames to extract; c) you have fewer frames to build and manage.

Use of queen excluders

This is a controversial subject.  Should you use queen excluders?  It will depend upon your point of view.    We would suggest that if you are having trouble with bees carrying nectar (honey) up into the honey supers above a queen excluder that you examine the beekeeping techniques you are using.  A queen needs open cells to lay eggs in.  If they are not available, then the bees are going to swarm.   What happens if bees do not carry honey into honey supers above the queen excluder -- they will store the honey in the brood chamber and eventually the hive becomes honey bound.  The queen has no place to lay eggs and the bees swarm.

The beekeeper must examine hives during nectar flows to determine what the bees are doing with the nectar.  If they are storing the honey below the queen excluder, the beekeeper must either remove the queen excluder or develop a plan to open up the brood chamber so the queen has room to lay eggs.

• I have used queen excluders successfully..  However, my method of beekeeping is not for everyone.   I have a large number of bees and sell queens and packages.   We use a swarm control technique that will work for the person wanting to increase the number of hives they have or the person who wants to sell bees.  Our technique is simple.  We use a single deep brood chamber with a queen excluder above it.   We then put our honey supers above the queen excluder.    The ten deep frames in the brood chamber are adequate for a queen to produce a lot of brood but  we prevent swarming by moving a frame of brood from the brood chamber every week or two and replace the removed frame with a frame of new  foundation.  By taking only one frame, we open up the brood area for bees to build new cells and the queen has a place to lay eggs.   If the bees are putting honey into the outside frames of this brood chamber, we remove them as well.
• A technique a person could use that did not want to build up new hives with the removed frames is to use a double deep brood chamber with a queen excluder above the first deep box.   The beekeeper could then move frames full of brood into the box above the queen excluder and replace the removed frame with an empty frame of comb or a new frame as we do.  Using this method the beekeeper would be taking advantage of a super large population of bees to gather a honey crop.  
• If the beekeeper is not particular about brood in honey supers -- it makes the cells dark and difficult to uncap at times, the beekeeper may want to avoid queen excluders altogether.  This requires the beekeeper to check honey supers for capped and uncapped brood when removing supers from the hive.  Queens may also be accidentally killed when the supers are removed as well.  The queen could be anywhere in a hive without a queen excluder.
• If the beekeeper does use queen excluders, the beekeeper will need to watch for swarm cells during the season -- even more so than the person who just goes out and stacks a lot of supers on a hive.  With room to roam, the queen will develop her brood nest upward and with the extra room will be less likely to develop the swarm impulse.

Poison/bee kills

We are much more aware of the effects of chemicals on crops than we were twenty years ago.  The number of approved pesticides has been reduced and the applicators are licensed for restricted use pesticides.  But this doesn't mean that you will not have a problem with pesticide kills.

Pesticides kill in three major ways.

• Direct contact -- such as coming into contact with a spray while a chemical is being applied to a crop.
• By taking the poison internally.  Example -- larva fed with poisoned pollen.
• Fumigation

The most common pesticide kill is to adult bees.  The beekeeper may find a large number of dead bees in front of the bee hives in the apiary.  On occasions the beekeeper may observe bees on leafs that seem to be drunk.  Chemicals generally affect the nervous system so that bees have trouble flying, walking, or remaining upright.

If you think you have a pesticide kill, document what you see and if you can take pictures, do so.  If you are aware of any commercial spraying within the flying radius of your bees, find out who was spraying and what chemical was used.   Applicators are required to notify beekeepers of applications of certain pesticides and can be held accountable if you can prove they are responsible for the damages.  However, the burden of proof is on your shoulders.

We would like to point out one other poison problem.  You most likely will never encounter this, but if you move bees into certain areas of the United States, your bees may not be welcome.   Commercial beekeepers often tell stories of going to a bee yard and finding "only nails".   Individuals can kill a hive easily.  They pour gasoline in the inner cover hole and light a match to it.   Or they may use a common pesticide such as carbaryl (Sevin) which is available at almost any store that sells chemicals for insect control.   It comes in both a liquid or powder form.  If dusted in the hive, bees will die in the hive and residue from the chemical can easily bee seen and collected as evidence.  If sprayed into the entrance, the bees will die as well but it is hard to see any evidence that a chemical was used.  If you suspect foul play with your bees, contact your state apiary division of the Dept. of Agriculture.  If they agree with you, then call in the law.

Various types of hive equipment you may encounter

We are more fortunate in the U.S. to have a standard hive.  However, even with the standard hive, one does run into problems.   Hives are generally 10 frame hive bodies 16 1/4 inches wide.   But some beekeepers maintain 8 frame equipment.  Eight frame boxes will not interchange with 10 frame equipment without some modification.  So what are you going to see when it comes to equipment?

By far the most typical equipment is going to be 10 frame equipment and equipment manufactured by one bee supplier will fit with other suppliers.   This applies to top cover, inner covers, bottom boards, queen excluders, and other devices used with bee hives.  Sometimes, the bee boxes will have a space at the top and some will have a space at the bottom.  If two such boxes are placed so that a space of more than 3/8 of an inch should exist, the bee space will be violated and bees will build burr comb between the frames.

A typical 10 frame hive is located at the left.  

Shown are a standard double deep brood chamber hive with two supers on top.  To the left of the tall hive is a standard hive in a deep bottom box with a medium (Illinois) super on top for the upper half of the brood chamber.  The bees in the colony to the right have excess stores.  The colony to the left must be checked often in the spring to make sure the bees have not used up all their honey stores and that they will have room for expansion when a honey flow hits.

It is important to standardize all of your beekeeping equipment.  I know of no bee catalog available today that offers the beekeeper 8 frame equipment.  It is available because it is still in use. Beekeepers needing 8 frame equipment often advertise in the bee journals for used equipment.  If purchased new, it must be special ordered.

Our recommendation is to stick with 10 frame equipment.  It can be sold when needed and is ready to work for another beekeeper without having to reduce your price to get rid of something most beekeepers can not use.

This is an eight frame hive.  Notice that it has two deep brood chambers.  This hive is not interchangeable with the 10 frame hive.  The top cover, inner cover and bottom board are about two inches (14 1/4 inches) less wide as   compared to the standard 10 frame hive.  It will hold just 8 frames compared to the 10 the ten frame hive will hold.  Its chief advantage is that more hives can be loaded on a truck and in pollination work it is about equal to a 10 frame  story and a half hive.

I apologize for the condition of my equipment.  My boxes need new paint and some maintenance  when I get to them.  The bees are fine however.

Both of the above pictures were shot from the same angle and the same distance from the hives. They make look the same but they are not.  For a better comparison, check the photograph below.  It shows a top cover and a shallow honey super up against the top cover side by side.

This gives a better picture of the difference.  The 8 frame super to the right has 8 frames in it.  The 10 frame super to the left has 8 frames in it.  Notice the difference.  The 10 frame super has a lot of space between frames.  The frames in the 8 frame super fit well but are tight.

Under normal honey production, supers are placed upon a brood chamber for bees to store honey.  The 10 frame super is used with eight or nine frames.  The bees pull the cappings out from the face of the comb -- storing just as much honey as if 10 frames were in the super.  Uncapping a frame that has cells built beyond the top bar allows for easier extracting.  When 10 frames are used in a 10 frame box, the bees will respect the bee space between the frames and not build comb into that area.  The result is that the beekeeper will have to use a honey knife to dip into the comb to uncap the shallow cells.

This is by no means all you will see.  A few hives exist and are still in use from nearly 75 years ago.  I found an old Buckeye Hive (double walled hive) in good shape.  It takes standard 10 frame equipment.   One may find the Deep Dadant hive.  This is also standard for 10 frames but the deep frames are 18 1/2 by 11 1/4.  Such a hive has about the equivalent capacity of a twelve frame standard Langstroth hive.  On rare occasions one might run into some older antique beekeeping equipment.   Antique beekeeping equipment has great value.   At on time it was thrown on the burn pile -- hopefully no more.  The value of old bee books lies in the information we can get about beekeeping in the past.  If you are lucky enough to get your hands on an ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture prior to 1925 enjoy hours of reading about things like the Danzenbaker hive, the Hendon hive, the Bingham hive and others.