Feeding yet?

[p51d]

Is anyone feeding yet? I have a strong hive when warm that is extremely active. Others are not so active yet. The extremely active one scares me they are early. (Russians)

[Jacobs]

With this unusual winter, I've never really stopped feeding. I have kept jars of sugar water out (2:1 during the winter, 1:1 starting the beginning of February) all year. Whenever it has been sunny and 42°F or more, the bees have come to it. My jars are about 30 feet away from my hives. I was balancing the jars on sticks to give open access to the bees. If I used the boardman base away from the hives, the bees crowded in, got trapped and clogged the feeder. I showed this to Zulu and he took the feeding idea a step further. He drilled an opening, jar lid sized, in a piece of wood, attached it to spacer pieces and a bottom base, and created a stable remote jar feeder set up. I liked it so much that I stole the idea from him and made much cruder versions--


Stadiem has observed that his bees using the jar and stick approach empty jars faster with jars that don't have as much space under them as others. My next experiment may be to lessen the height of the support pieces on a feeder and see if that holds true for this set up.

I have not put feeders on the hives yet--has anyone started this?

[p51d]

I considered that as well, feeding all winter but I have seen what freezing will do to a hive.

Just inspected two of my hives, one is extremely strong so I only added space for growth to prevent a swarm. Other one I will feed as they have low stores.

Nice ideas on the feeders. That is smart and I might give that a try as well.

[herbcoop]

I got my girls last July and have done good so far keeping them alive, though the winter I have been using 2 mediums.
I see alot of activity now with bees bringing in pollen, I've read where I don't want to feed them to much and the bees start filling the brood area with honey but I don't want them to starve either. I read where I could just use sugar on the inner cover in a grandulated form, or should I just use some sugar water? I'm thinking if I use grandulated sugar it might take them a little long to process which might be better?
Thanks,
Herb (Thomasville)

[Jacobs]

The dry sugar on newspaper over the cluster is usually an emergency food supply given during the winter when quick exams show a hive to be light in stores. Some beekeepers in colder climates use this method for supplemental feeding because it can be many months before temperatures would permit them to have a hive open long enough to manipulate food frames. The internal moisture of the hive provides some water to allow some processing of the dry sugar for food. I don't think this method of feeding would be desirable when brood rearing is going on in any significant fashion.

I would not normally feed, even externally, all winter. For most of the winter I kept 2 quarts of sugar water in the jar feeders, and it was rare when the bees would not/could not fly to it. This was for around 7-8 hives of bees. Last year, external jar feeding stopped in early December when the majority of days were too cold for the bees to break cluster and fly.

I have been in all of my hives to check food stores, check for queen presence, and to give pollen patties to the colonies. As warm weather permits, I will continue to do at least quick examinations. Hives are in greatest danger of starving in February or March when brood rearing is ramping up, honey consumption is up to feed the brood, and nectar is not available. One of the reasons drawn, open comb is such a valuable resource to have is that it gives you the flexibility to give more open space by removing filled frames when needed. I would rather be in the position of removing frames of sugar water "honey" and storing them as food reserves than cleaning out a hive that starved.

[herbcoop]

Thanks for your input, should I put pollen patties in then even though I can see the bees going in carrying lots of yellow I guess pollen in with them?
I was planning to open up the hive this past Saturday to check on what they had stored that was still left but with it being cooler and the heavy wind I thought best not to.
Herb

[Jacobs]

The pollen patties will stimulate brood rearing. I may regret putting it on my stronger hives--active swarm management will be in order. The balance is between hives that will be strong for the nectar flow or for splitting and hives that will be strong for swarming.

My weaker hives definitely can use the patties. My thinking is that this gives them more protein without taxing the foragers as much. I'm hoping the bees in the weak hives may live a bit longer and may be able to care for/warm more brood and allow the hives to build. I'm just about at a point where I will be able to remove frames of capped brood from my strong hives and boost the weak ones.

The pollen patty gives the hive an around the clock good weather/bad weather protein source. I am seeing small hive beetles in some of my hives, so I don't want to put in large amounts of the patty in a hive that cannot consume it in 4-5 days. As it warms, excess pollen patty material provides the SHB everything they need to have to go into high gear egg laying and create a real mess.

[Wally]

Right now there is speedwell, henbit, pears, blue berries, and who knows what else in bloom. I have quit feeding and no more pollen patty, either. The spring flow is on unless we have another deep freeze, which is totally possible.

[Jacobs]

Your plants are further along than mine. My blueberries are still in buds and I haven't seen any fruit tree blossoms in my part of Greensboro, ornamental or otherwise.

[ski]

My blueberries are in bud stage as well but my neighbor told me he has fruit trees in bloom. I have to walk over in the woods to see if the red buds are doing anything.

Just to stay on topic I have fed several gallons over the last two months.

I have one hive that is 5 mediums high and 3 of the mediums are full of bees, the top medium still has honey and the now second medium above the brood is mostly empty. That hive is either a split or swarm waiting to happen.

[Wally]

The blue berries are 99% buds, but a few have opened. The pears are Bartlett, not ornamental.

[herbcoop]

Thanks guys I appreciate all your words, I'm going to hold off feeding until I can get inside and take a look and see whats happening

[ski]

Wally,
Do you think whatever the bees are bringing in at this time is rapidly being used to raise brood and the bees are not storing very much just yet?

No red buds blooming yet just too early for them I guess.

Did find a couple of tulip popular trees with the bud or flowers still on the branches.

[ski]

Put some syrup out today. I like the bucket for open feeding.

[Wally]

I've only been in mine once in the last 3 weeks. They had open stores at that time. Maybe sugar, maybe nectar. I don't know. I quit feeding this weekend, so I will check them in a week or 2 and see what it looks like then. All my hives are heavy.

[Jacobs]

My bees at the house took over a gallon of sugar water today--most of the hives are really building in population. I did see some type of trees near Friendly Center in bloom today. These are the first to bloom significantly year after year. They are some kind of ornamental I would guess, but the ornamental cherry around the corner from me has not bloomed yet.

[herbcoop]

I had obligations last night that prevented me in looking into the hive, with the rain today I'll pass looks very good for tomorrow night.
Weird thing is every year my back yard grows these purple things that look like mini christmas trees, walking across the yard I've never had a problem but last night before I had to leave and pick up my wife from work the backyard was filled with bees flying around these and landing on them. I was even thinking this past weekend on cutting these down before they got to out of hand. I usually just wear shorts out if I'm going to check the type of activity, I was glad I had on long pants (my dog doesn't appreciated them on these) LOL

[herbcoop]

ski - would the open bucket feeding your using possibly promote possible robbing from your hive since I would think this would attrect other bees to your area?
I'm new and learning so anything you can provide helps, please take no offence to the question

[Jacobs]

I'm not Ski, but I'll give you my experiences. My bees are thieves! When I attempt to open feed and put the scent of sugar water in the air, it tends to spark a robbing frenzy among my hives. The jar set up I have can be expanded if needed, but does not seem to throw out the smell or spark the robbing.

I do not see much fighting at my jars. When I see it, I suspect an outside bee from another place. I seem to remember Langstroth saying that bees that are from the same apiary and are open fed will not fight. (He wasn't addressing robbing at that time because he had not dealt with the Italian bee much and was probably writing of the "common" or "German" or "black" bee. When I locate the passage, I'll add it to this post.

[ski]

I have not had a problem with a robbing frenzy, Yet. But most of my hives have reducers on of some type and if I do have a problem with robbing I can go to the hive top feeders. Robbing may become a larger problem in the future as a couple of new beekeepers are setting up hives that are within a mile of my hives and there will be 3 within 2 miles, that I know of.

A lot of stuff in beekeeping is a try it and see how it works for you.