Sky Meadows Apiary Gets New Queen Bee

Beekeepers of Northern Shenandoah (BONS) have partnered to establish an apiary in the park. As part of this partnership, BONS president Doug Morris and his wife Ramona maintain the hives and present programs at the park.

With the last of cold weather behind us, itwas time to examine the Sky Meadows State Park hives and see how they fared over the long winter. The West Hive bee colony is doing well and increasing in number. The East Hive did not survive the winter, and needed to be replaced.

We bought a package of bees and a queen. A package is about 3 pounds of bees in a wooden box 16 inches long, 8 inches high and 6 inches wide. The box has two screened sides so the bees can get air and, occasionally, be lightly sprayed with water to keep them hydrated. The box top has a 3-inch diameter hole that holds a can filled with sugar syrup. The bottom of the can has two pinholes from which the bees feed. There is also a narrow tape going through the top hole. At the end of the tape, hanging among the bees, is a queen cage. The cage measures 3 inches by 1 inch by ¾ inch and has one side screened. The queen and two or three worker bees are inside the cage. The worker bees are necessary because the queen cannot feed herself.

The box arrangement is quite old and, in the past, bee packages were sent in the U.S. Mail. That can still be done, but nowadays most beekeepers buy packages from a middleman who drives down to Georgia and returns with hundreds of packages for sale to bee clubs and individuals. Because the South has an earlier Spring, commercial beekeepers down there can increase colony populations after winter, rear queens and put the packages together well before the nectar flow in the North.

In Sky Meadows, the east hive is comprised of a bottom board with hive entrance, two medium hive bodies, each with 10 frames for the bees to build comb, an inner cover and a top cover that prevents rain and snow from entering the hive.

To install the bees into the hive, we carefully took the can of syrup out of the hole in the top of the box where it rested and quickly pulled the queen cage through the hole by pulling on the tape. Then we replaced the can. The queen cage goes into the beekeeper’s pocket because she does not like direct sun and you know where to find the cage when you need it! Then we removed five of the frames in the bottom hive body and placed the box on the bottom board taking the can out of the hole so that the bees can exit the box and fly around. Normally they move to sit on the remaining frames.

We then took the queen cage and removed a small cork from a hole in the end of the cage. Behind the cork is a piece of marshmallow blocking the hole. The cage was then placed between the frames with the screened side upwards so that the bees in the hive can congregate around the cage and get to know the queen.

It is most important that the bee population becomes familiar with the scent of this particular queen and eventually accept her when she is released from the cage. This happens when the worker bees on the outside and those inside the cage eat through the marshmallow and clear the exit hole. There is always a large cluster of bees around the cage once they are released from the box. We then replaced the top hive body, added a large feeder with about a quart of sugar syrup, and closed up the hive by replacing the top covers.

We will wait a few days before opening the hive and checking on the queen cage to see if the queen has come out. Usually this has happened and we can remove the queen cage and the empty package box, replace the frames in the bottom hive body and close up the hive again.

The last item is to check the hive about a week later after giving the queen time to start laying eggs. By then the worker bees have been converting the sugar syrup to wax and building wax comb on the frames to store pollen that they have been collecting and sugar syrup that they will feed on and provide to the pupae in the comb cells where the queen has laid eggs. On our final inspection, we will hold up the frames with comb to spot the eggs which shows that the queen is alive and building a population ready for the coming nectar flow when the bees will start making and storing honey ready for winter.

To learn more about beekeeping and the different roles filled by worker, drone and queen bees, be sure to attend our next “Meet the Beekeepers” program at Sky Meadows. We will be at the park on Sunday, May 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. We hope to see you there!

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