Chapter 7 · Quiz

Chapter 7 Quiz: Managing Your Colonies

15 questions from lessons 48–52. Answer from memory first, then check the lesson if you're unsure. This quiz is for your own practice; nothing is graded.

Lesson 48: Swarm Prevention vs. Swarm Control

  1. What's the difference between swarm prevention and swarm control?
  2. Why reverse the brood boxes in spring, and when shouldn't you?
  3. Why isn't cutting out queen cells, on its own, a reliable way to stop swarming?

Lesson 49: Adding Honey Supers and Using a Queen Excluder

  1. When should you add another honey super?
  2. Where do you place a super of new foundation?
  3. Why must the queen excluder come off before winter?

Lesson 50: Robbing: Why It Starts and How to Stop It

  1. Why does robbing usually happen during a dearth?
  2. What's the first thing to do when you see a colony being robbed?
  3. How can you tell robbing from young bees' orientation flights?

Lesson 51: Water for Your Bees

  1. Name two things bees use water for.
  2. Why set up water before the bees arrive?
  3. What's the most important feature of a bee waterer?

Lesson 52: Setting a Colony Up for Winter

  1. What's the single most important fall job for winter survival?
  2. Why give bees fewer supers in fall, the opposite of spring?
  3. Why is a spotty brood pattern in early fall a concern?

Answers

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Printed in the next issue, or check them now if you've finished.

  1. Prevention removes the reasons to swarm before preparations start; control deals with a colony that's already raising swarm cells.
  2. The cluster moves to the top box over winter and bees don't like to move down; reversing gives them empty space above. Don't do it if the brood nest is spread across both boxes.
  3. It must be done thoroughly every 7–9 days, and missing even one cell lets the colony swarm.
  4. When the top box is about three-quarters full, and before the main flow.
  5. Directly above the brood nest, below supers of drawn comb.
  6. The winter cluster moves upward and can leave the queen stranded below the excluder.
  7. Foragers have nothing to collect, so they look for easy food in weaker colonies.
  8. Reduce its entrance to a small opening, then seal other gaps and close the hive.
  9. Orientation flights are calm loops facing the hive; robbing is frantic, zig-zagging and involves fighting at the entrance.
  10. Any two of: cooling the hive; humidity; feeding larvae; diluting stored honey.
  11. Bees use the nearest reliable source and are slow to switch; if yours is there first, they won't learn to use the neighbor's pool.
  12. A safe place to land and drink without drowning.
  13. Controlling varroa mites so the winter bees are healthy.
  14. It makes them store honey in and around the brood nest, where the winter cluster can reach it.
  15. It points to a failing queen or poor health, and such colonies often don't survive winter.

★ = a topic on the Georgia Certified Beekeeper exam list.

◀ Lesson 52Lesson 53 ▶