Solstice

[Jacobs]

My bees at the house are bringing in lots of pollen and showing very little interest in the honey water feeder. I have seen lots of leatherleaf mahonia, camellias, some quince, and some dandelions in bloom. Given the 70°F+ weather we have been having, it looks like several of my queens have decided to ramp up brood rearing. I think I will keep the honey water available and get my brewers yeast mix ready. When these plants get slammed by cold weather, I don't want brood or bees starving. If the bees make it and continue to brood up, swarm prevention measures are going to have to come earlier this season. I would gladly have that problem.

[donwal]

My girls also busy bringing in pollen today.

https://www.facebook.com/donna.r.wallac ... 5707172252

[Jacobs]

Happy bee new year 2016. It has not been as warm as last year so I an not seeing the mahonia in bloom just yet. I'll check David's quince later today. I plan to celebrate this morning by treating my McLeansville hives with oxalic acid vaporization. There are a lot of good reminders in this "New Year" string of posts, so I hope folks will read and will join the conversation on the forum board this year so we can keep building a very local base of knowledge.

[Jacobs]

Happy bee new year 2017. I have seen a few dandelion blooms, but this more normal fall weather-wise means we are not getting the early blooming like 2015 or 2016. The mahonia I have seen are budding, but appear nowhere near blooming. Hives I checked the day before yesterday have not started building up brood. I am going to start my brood stimulation efforts (pollen substitute/pollen patties & thin sugar water feed) at the house in hopes of getting enough early brood rearing to be able to boost weaker hives with brood frames and young nurse bees as soon as possible.

[Wally]

If you are planning to raise a few early queens, you may want to install a couple of "green" frames to try and get some early drones.

[Wally]

18 days to go.

Friday, Dec. 21, 2018 at 5:23 PM will be winter solstice. As the days get longer, the queens will begin laying for spring bees. It will start in the south and move northward and increase as the days get longer and the flows begin.

Just remember, most hives that starve will do so in the last weeks before bloom. The supplies will be running low and the brood, IE: mouths to feed, will be increasing. Heft your hives often and feed as needed.

[Jacobs]

Happy Bee New Year 2018. News 2, as of 5:00 a.m., says Greensboro is .2 of an inch away from tying the wettest year on record and that we have a good chance of getting that with the current weather system. Our winter so far has been a little cooler than normal with lots of clouds and rain. Some time during the day I plan on taking a look at some of the early blooming plants around the neighborhood to see how far along they are. "Mite Patrol" activity is picking up since this low brood period is a good time to learn OAV for varroa mite control. My impression is that many of my hives are not as strong as I would like them to be. I'll be checking as weather permits, but will be lifting them regularly. I don't want to lose any that might make it because I let them starve.

[Wally]

Saturday, December 21, is winter solstice for us, but it is the first day of spring for the bees. As the days get longer, the queen will ramp up egg laying to get ready for the flowers. Your hive population will double to triple before the first flower blooms, so the food will go much faster. The consumption of winter stores will increase as the number of new mouths to feed increase. Starvation will be much more of a problem as the stores decrease before the first nectar becomes available. Keep this in mind and watch your hives carefully.

[Jacobs]

Happy Bee New Year 2019. There are a few dandelions in bloom, but I haven't seen bees on them. The leatherleaf mahonias are a long way from blooming. I'll check out David's flowering quince later this morning. My bees are bringing in pollen from somewhere, probably camellias in the neighborhood. Wally's advice is a good reminder to all of us. I hope everyone has a successful over-wintering.

[Jacobs]

Happy bee new year 2020. While not what we (people) should be doing with covid-19, I'm hoping my bees will be in large clusters these cool/cold mornings so I can finish up OAV treatments while brood in hives is at its lowest. Here's hoping that life will get closer to normal this spring/summer and that it will be safe enough for beekeepers to get back together in large groups soon.

[quentin]

Thanks for the nudge on this thread. Think I'll plant some camellias this year. Sunday or Monday looks like good days to be hefting hives and feeding.

[Jacobs]

Happy bee New Year 2021. We've had a cool, but not cold November, and a warm December so far. Bees have been flying a lot, and although they have shown only a modest interest in the nectarometer, it is hard to imagine that they are bringing in enough nectar to replace the stores they are burning through. I got my OAV taken care of at the house yesterday and plan to finish up the rest of my hives tomorrow. Covid-19 is still a factor in whether folks show up for our in-person GCBA meetings, and we are keeping up hope that the situation will permit us to hold our scheduled in-person beginner beekeeping course in January, 2022. Check hive weights regularly so your bees don't starve as brood rearing picks up and keep water available for the bees when they can fly.

[Jacobs]

Happy bee New Year 2022. Check out Wally's post under "Winter Solstice." Maybe the Arctic blast we are getting Friday and the bitter cold of the 2-3 days following will cut down on the SHB we will have to deal with in the coming bee season. Bees are showing solid interest in the nectarometer but have been limited in getting to it by the cool, cloudy weather we have had for a good part of December. A few of the speedwell plants in my garlic area have bloomed. I expect the freeze to take care of the blooms, but the plants will be fine.

[Jacobs]

Happy Bee New Year 2023. With more normal winter temperatures so far this year, we can only hope that it is enough to knock down some of the over wintering SHB that have found locations outside of our hives. Last year's short Arctic Blast wasn't enough to do the job. Bees are showing a small interest in the nectarometer and although a little of the speedwell was in bloom a few weeks ago, none is now in bloom in my "garlic patch."

I plan to keep a bowl of pollen substitute powder beside my nectarometer to encourage early build up of my home hives. It means keeping the substitute available once started, and if it does what I hope, it also means very active swarm controls in my future. The vaporizer is out and I'll get busy with it today and tomorrow.

[Jacobs]

Happy Bee New Year 2024. I put sugar bricks or sugar and pollen substitute bricks on all of my remote hives over the last 2 days. It was too cool to do serious exams, but the populations in the hives looked good and bees had either completely or largely consumed sugar bricks I put on just short of a month ago. For some reason this year, the bees have been hot when I open the top to check/replace bricks so I have had to use gloves in addition to my veil. I am planning on applying OAV treatments to all hives in the next week. I wish the OAV killed adult SHB. I did not see SHB on the inner covers of the hives, but based on the numbers I saw last time it was warm enough to examine frames, I am concerned about how many are in the cluster and how aggressive they may be about consuming eggs when the queens increase laying. I'll be checking bricks more frequently to make sure bees do not starve. I'll be keeping an eye on January weather and on the Red Maple bloom to try and gestimate the beginning of swarm season. I hope everyone has a good season upcoming.

[Wally]

Today is Winter Solstice. Each day after that will have a little more daylight. It is said that this is one of nature's ways of telling the creatures spring is on the way.

The queen can resume laying anytime from then until mid Jan. For best buildup and strong hives, many keepers begin feeding both sugar water and pollen substitute shortly after Solstice. By mid Jan. at the latest, for maximum effectiveness. Just be sure they have it available constantly. Feeding, then letting them run out before spring will be worse than not feeding in the beginning, as it will cause them to have thousands of larva to feed, but no stores to feed them.

[reedyfork]

I took advantage of yesterday's 40+ degrees to get a round of OAV completed in all my colonies. Theoretically, they should be as close to "broodless" as possible, so hopefully this will knock down any remaining phoretic mites and they will come out of winter healthy.

My emergency sugar bricks are already on, and I will wait until we get a sunny warm-ish day next month before cracking the lids to see how they are being consumed.

[Pharmacyman]

I am seeing conflicting information on the minimum treatment temperature for OAV vaporization. This article (2nd study) states that efficacy is independent of temperature: https://frankthebeeman.com/wp-content/u ... 1-23-1.pdf Other places and studies indicate at least 37 degrees F for OAV.

What are your thoughts? I charged my battery overnight, but today I'm showing a high of only 39 degrees. I will hold off until I get some guidance here.

[Jacobs]

I've gone with the 37/39F based on the Q&A sheet Dadant has published for years. I don't really know at what point it is too cool for the vapors to properly spread within the hive, but since I'm not all that fond of the cold and at 37/39F, few foragers are out and about, I've gone with that. I do try and do OAV near dawn or dusk when temperatures are higher to get the most bees treated. If I can't do that, I would still OAV figuring some treatment with this non-resistent developing mite killer is better than none.