Winter Planning--First Thoughts

[Jacobs]

I took advantage of the warm weather last Friday to tip hives and to pop the top on a couple of them. Food stores seem to be holding up reasonably well, but none of the hives went into the winter season as strong as they had been in the last 2 years. One hive appears to have gone queenless and there are not enough bees to justify the disruption of combining hives.

Based on what I have seen, I am giving serious thought to trying to boost bee populations in my backyard hives starting in mid January. If this works, it will give me frames of brood to use to boost my other hives coming into spring. Several years ago we had a cold, gray winter that extended into spring. One strong hive allowed me to save around 4 other weak hives that had dwindled because of the attrition of the old bees and the delay of brood build up.

[Wally]

Just keep a close eye on them. It could bring swarming on a month or more early if the brood rearing gets away from you.

[Becky Hampton]

Rob - I'm a first year beekeeper. Can you explain what you mean by boosting your bee populations starting in mid-January? Does that mean your going to start feeding them heavily? How does this work?

[Jacobs]

I plan to stimulate brood rearing by feeding a nectar substitute. This can be a 1:1 sugar to water mix, or in my case, a honey water solution. I keep an external jar feeder for honey water about 30 feet from my hive all winter. Prior to my effort to build up, I never put out more than a quart a day. It gives the bees a reason to fly, but really should not stimulate brood rearing among the several hives at the house. I will increase the availability of the honey water when I want to stimulate brood. I can do this by adding feeders and by going to half gallon jars.

The bees also need pollen to rear brood. I will put out a dry substitute consisting of spent brewers yeast, soy flour, and powdered sugar that I powder (no corn starch). This is in a ratio of about 8:1:1. If the bees need it, they will get it in large numbers. If there is sufficient natural pollen available, they will largely ignore it.

Once I start this process, it cannot stop until the nectar flow begins and natural pollen is available. If I stop feeding, I risk having the brood starve for lack of natural resources.

Wally is correct. If I succeed in getting numbers to build early, I will have to try and prevent swarming before that normally becomes an issue.

[Jacobs]

I have been putting out the brewer's yeast mix for about 2 weeks now, and the bees have been taking large quantities. Yesterday, they were hitting water sources pretty heavily. This combination of "pollen" gathering and water consumption points toward a ramping up of brood rearing. The down side will be if there is more new brood than the cluster can keep warm or the cluster is too small to keep the brood warm AND get to food sources. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

A couple of hives have me worried since there is forager activity, but no bees coming back with "pollen." If we hit 60°F today, I'll check to see if there is any sign of a functional queen in them.

I have also thawed some pollen substitute patties that I have had in the freezer for awhile. I'm going to put them just above the cluster in my home hives. Now that I have begun stimulating brood rearing, I don't want hives to go without pollen substitute during the upcoming cold snap. All part of the fun of beekeeping.

[Jacobs]

This is turning into a grim winter. Two more deadouts at the house and one in Franklinville. Two were summer swarms and one dated back to our 2009 purchase of nucs from Richard Wright in Mt. Gilead. Based on what I saw yesterday, I expect to lose a couple more weak hives during this next cold snap. It looks like this spring will be devoted to trying to strengthen survivors and perhaps make a few splits.

[Jacobs]

It looks like I am not going to have to worry about putting together more frames or boxes for this spring. I will have plenty on hand. This is already the worst winter I have experienced, and there is still a long way to go. I'll be closing out two more hives tomorrow.

[specialkayme]

I would have lost a ton of hives if it wasn't for constant candy I've been putting on the hives. Some appear to be going through a 10" pie tin a week.

[Wally]

Checked my 3 hives and one I'm baby sitting for the winter. All have deep frames of honey fully capped, open and capped brood, eggs and pollen. All four totally ready for spring. Maples starting to bloom and fresh pollen and nectar in all hives. Couldn't ask for any better.

Even saw two of the queens.

[Jacobs]

In the afternoon yesterday, I began to see the transition from my brewers yeast mix to natural pollen. The stronger hives were coming back with some bright orange and some olive green pollen, while the weaker ones continued to bring in brewers yeast on their abdomens and in their pollen baskets. I'll keep the mix available until the bee numbers going to it drop to 2-3 bees.

[pholcomb]

Lost one of my 3 hives during the most recent cold snap. All 3 hives seemed to be doing well during the last warm spell a couple weeks ago.

The dead hive is a 2nd year Carniolan. The bees didn't starve. I pulled from the hive 2 medium 8 frame boxes weighing 39 and 40 lbs apiece yesterday. Mite counts were low going into fall, and I didn't see any deformed dead bees, so I don't think mites were the cause. I saw very little new brood (mostly covered by dead bees that were trying to keep it warm), so I'm guessing that maybe it was just a queen failure.

It's a little surprising, because this hive was bringing in pollen just a couple weeks ago.

I don't have a freezer to big enough for bee boxes, so I just put them in a heavy plastic bag and stored them in the outbuilding. I saw a bunch of dead hive beetles but not a single live one. Maybe the severe cold has knocked back the hive beetle and wax moth populations a little bit.

I uncapped part of a frame and set it about 10 feet from the hives. The bees cleaned the comb in a couple hours. I didn't see the bees bringing in much pollen yesterday. I think the camellias in my neighborhood got wiped out by the cold.

Of my remaining hives, the other 2nd year Carniolan is moderately active, but the Wayne's Bees hive (1st year) is doing great.

Regarding winter prep, I'm one of the odd balls who wraps the hives. I use tek foil (you can get it at Lowes or order it online from places like Farmtek), which is essentially just bubble wrap with a thin layer of foil on each side. Obviously, it's reflective so it doesn't absorb sunlight and warm the have like tarpaper will. My goal is just to tighten up the hive a little bit and cut down on the draftiness on cold windy days. I also use an insulated inner cover (from Brushy Mountain) to reduce heat loss through the top of the hive. I have screened bottom boards, so I keep the IMP board in place most of the winter to reduce cold air flow from the bottom.

I read somewhere recently that increasing the CO2 level in the hive reduces the bees metabolic rate during winter and slows the drawdown of stores. I'm not sure how all of this plays out when the hive is trying to raise brood and keep it warm, but on the surface this seems like an argument for keeping a tight hive during winter.

Six weeks of winter to go. Hope the remaining hives survive.

Paul

[Zulu]

Rob I have plenty BT if you need to spray frames.

Welcome to use my sprayer.

[Jacobs]

I'm good Zulu. I appreciate the offer.

[herbcoop]

I've seen the girls bringing in pollen but I haven't gone completely in the hives for inspection since the rain, cold, snow and wind. I just open the top and look at the top frames where I've placed my sugar bricks.
Since they are bringing in pollen on the some what warm days, should I bypass any addition on pollen patties, or am I to late for that or to early. Will this nasty weather coming tomorrow and Thursday destroy the source of where they were getting pollen?

off topic question- How do you post a picture on here, when I try it says my picture is to large
Thanks in advance

[Wally]

Resize your pic to 640 X 480.

[Jacobs]

Last question first--I opened a free photobucket account. I upload pictures to it, reduce the picture size, and then insert it into my post. It is clunky, but it works.

I have been putting out dry mixed pollen substitute for some time now at the house. This means my bees may be brooding up based on the additional availability of pollen. It could be very bad if they have large amounts of brood and then the supply of "pollen" is suddenly cut off. Large amounts of new brood could starve. For this reason, I have been adding pollen patties to my most active hives when it appears like there will be several non-flying days. If we ever break this nasty weather cycle, I think my bees will move on to red maple pollen and no longer show interest in the brewers yeast.

You can put pollen patties on now (weather permitting) to fill in for days when the bees cannot fly. Once you start, you should make sure that the bees continue to have a pollen supply. You should also keep an eye on honey/food stores. Brood rearing can consume lots of honey quickly.

This weather should not destroy the main pollen source of red maple. It is an early bloomer and I understand that it takes significantly colder weather than what we are getting to damage the buds/blooms. I have read elsewhere that red maples do not all bloom at once, and may bloom as much as a month apart in the same location. I have seen close to this spread in my neighborhood.

[Zulu]

Freeware sw to resize pics is amazingly easy - from here> called Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/

I load my pics to Picassa web, but have also used Photobucket

[herbcoop]

thanks to all
I have dropbox so let me see if I can figure it out there.
If the weather gets to be somewhat nice I'll add a little bit of pollen patty in each and keep an eye on it and add more if necessary, then hopefully a nicer day coming I can check the hives better than what I've been able to do so far.
I heard anything around 60 I can go in and check frames quickly?

[Wally]

Once the weather warms up, be very careful with pollen patties. Don't give a hive more than it can consume in five days. In warm weather there will be hundreds of SHB larva in a 7 day old pollen patty.

[herbcoop]

Once the weather warms up, be very careful with pollen patties. Don't give a hive more than it can consume in five days. In warm weather there will be hundreds of SHB larva in a 7 day old pollen patty.

Thanks Wally great to know, appreciate that