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Author Topic: Fall feeding pictures.  (Read 2393 times)

Offline van from Arkansas

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Fall feeding pictures.
« on: November 10, 2019, 02:43:20 pm »
Temp from 26F to 75F in 48 hrs.  Currently 72F so I am feeding 2X sugar as the temp is back to the teens in 48hrs.  I use 3 buckets filled with styrofoam peanuts and sticks for the bees to climb on.

My entrances are reduced to 3/4 in so there is a bit of a traffic jam in the nuc  as shown.

Criticism, ideas, suggestions, welcome, always looking to improve.
Blessings
Van

I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2019, 02:43:58 pm »


Sunday November 10, 2019.
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline Dallasbeek

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2019, 06:37:44 pm »
Might the bees fill up with sugar water and be unable to fly up out of the bucket?
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Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2019, 06:56:34 pm »
Dallas, a few of the bees get stuffed and temporally grounded unable to fly.  But in a short time, like two hours the bees fly off.  I guess the overloaded bees digest some of the sugar, elimination occurs, lightening the load and the bees become capable of flight.

My observation is based on the elimination of sugar waste, bee poop, which coats the bucket walls.  My best guess.

The reason for the sticks is for the overloaded bees to crawl up and rest and digest.  Early feeding, like the first 2-3 hours, the sticks will have many bees, but prior to sunset the sticks will be clear of bees.
Van

Sundown 5:05pm.  The critters on the side of the bucket are almost all yellow jackets.  The sticks don?t have bees on them.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2019, 07:11:09 pm by van from Arkansas »
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2019, 10:38:05 pm »
Mr Van, your bees are tearing up, few if any are drowning as far as I can tell. Looks good to me! 👍🏻
Phillip
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14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Nock

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2019, 10:16:41 am »
Low 60?s here yesterday as well. I saw some pollen coming in from somewhere.

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2019, 04:18:31 pm »
Thank you Phil for the kind words.

Nock, yesterday, Sunday 72F, Monday night, 18F.  Sunshine yesterday, snow today, Monday.  Go figure???  My poor queens don?t know what to do: lay or cluster??

Blessings
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline FloridaGardener

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2019, 08:05:41 pm »
Van, I put this link in a different post just now, but I think it's a good article worth noting, re: adding 60 mg of zinc /kilo of feed for best larval development.  As opposed to straight sugar.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/eea.12342

Offline Nock

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2019, 01:53:26 pm »
Van or others that open feed during warm spells in winter. Do you find it necessary to still keep your feeder a safe distance from hives to prevent robbing?  Just wondering if robbing would be a issue during winter as during summer/fall. Thanks

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2019, 02:34:06 pm »
I would not place a feeder next to a hive.  My feeders are about 20 feet from any hive and I have no problems with robbing.  Entrances are reduced to 3/4 inch so chances of robbing is further reduced.
Good question, Nock.

Blessings
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2019, 03:35:40 pm »
I agree with Mr Van I would not place open feeding very close to hives either. I do however us boardman feeders without any problems even now. We have had temperatures as low as 18f recently, and no problem with freezing or bursting jars. I am feeding this particular way for the administration of honey bee healthy knock off, (less lemongrass added), targeting each hive specifically.  See the topic posted here recently about honey freezing and busting. I suppose sugar water does not bust and freeze either. At least not in my experience. I do feed openly, Ultra Bee pollen sub. This is placed several feet, (60 to 100),  from my apiarys. There are other ways that I feed also but I do not want to get to far off subject.
Phillip
« Last Edit: November 20, 2019, 03:55:10 pm by Ben Framed »
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2019, 05:08:43 pm »
Phil, while on the subject of freeze: salt water will freeze, just look at the north or south poles.  However, unlike salt, sugar greatly lowers the freeze point of water.  The more sugar, the lower the freeze point.  I don?t know if sugar saturated water solution will freeze?
Van
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline The15thMember

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2019, 06:25:14 pm »
Phil, while on the subject of freeze: salt water will freeze, just look at the north or south poles.  However, unlike salt, sugar greatly lowers the freeze point of water.  The more sugar, the lower the freeze point.  I don?t know if sugar saturated water solution will freeze?
Van
As Van said, the addition of almost any solute to water will cause its freezing point to lower (and its boiling point to rise).  So seawater freezes at about 28 degrees F instead of 32 degrees F.  This is why we put salt on roads in the winter, because the saltwater solution created will stay liquid (and therefore ice-free) at colder temps.  I found someone on a cooking forum who said that 1:1 syrup will freeze at 22 degrees F, and 2:1 at 12.5 degrees F.  They did not provide any math or a source for this answer, so I'm unsure if the numbers are accurate.       
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Offline Nock

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2019, 09:57:51 pm »
I agree with Mr Van I would not place open feeding very close to hives either. I do however us boardman feeders without any problems even now. We have had temperatures as low as 18f recently, and no problem with freezing or bursting jars. I am feeding this particular way for the administration of honey bee healthy knock off, (less lemongrass added), targeting each hive specifically.  See the topic posted here recently about honey freezing and busting. I suppose sugar water does not bust and freeze either. At least not in my experience. I do feed openly, Ultra Bee pollen sub. This is placed several feet, (60 to 100),  from my apiarys. There are other ways that I feed also but I do not want to get to far off subject.
Phillip
Do you feed all winter as well?

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2019, 12:13:35 pm »
I agree with Mr Van I would not place open feeding very close to hives either. I do however us boardman feeders without any problems even now. We have had temperatures as low as 18f recently, and no problem with freezing or bursting jars. I am feeding this particular way for the administration of honey bee healthy knock off, (less lemongrass added), targeting each hive specifically.  See the topic posted here recently about honey freezing and busting. I suppose sugar water does not bust and freeze either. At least not in my experience. I do feed openly, Ultra Bee pollen sub. This is placed several feet, (60 to 100),  from my apiarys. There are other ways that I feed also but I do not want to get to far off subject.
Phillip
Do you feed all winter as well?

  Yes in a way I do, I place feed on top of the frames, mountain camp style, for emergencies and I also leave boardman feeders laced with honey-bee healthy, actually it is not honey-bee healthy by name, but a mixture that I learned from Don Kuchenmeister and Joe May.
  To avoid robbing I do not use lemongrass oil in the mix as some folks do, as this is a real strong attraction to bees.  I do not want to take a chance of jump-starting robbing even in the off season. So just to be cautions, I leave lemongrass out. I also open feed pollen all winter.
  There are many days that the weather is just to cold for the bees to get out and forage here in my area. There are many nights that the temperatures here are in the low 20s and many days that the temperature never makes it up to freezing. In fact we have already had some nights that were in the teens and it is not even winter yet. However, I did notice last winter, anytime the temperature is 43 or above I will see bees gathering the pollen substitute.
  I talked to David at Barnyard Bees last year an he assured me that my nucs would come out of winter busting at the seams using these methods and he was right.  All seven nucs (as I made late season splits of my hives and added mated queens as needed to these splits, and I mean LATE season splits) not only survived but thrived.
Phillip
« Last Edit: November 21, 2019, 01:51:01 pm by Ben Framed »
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2019, 01:42:34 pm »
I would not place a feeder next to a hive.  My feeders are about 20 feet from any hive and I have no problems with robbing.  Entrances are reduced to 3/4 inch so chances of robbing is further reduced.
Good question, Nock.

Blessings
Van,
You are lucky that you have not had a problem problem with robbing. Remember that bees have a close in area that they do not give direction or range, The bees just give a taste and a dance that say the food source is close.  For some bees that distance is 40?feet others it is 100?. Anything that is within that range is fair game. That is why I keep my feeder over 100 feet from my hives.
Jim Altmiller
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Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2019, 08:47:40 pm »
Good point Jim, I never argue with a fella when he is correct.  Yes, close range can be a problem.  Strong hives and a 3/4 inch entrance helps.

Blessings
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2019, 09:13:01 pm »
An interesting observation;

When feeding, all entrances to hives were busy with bees coming and going, second pic shows the traffic jams caused by 3/4 inch opening.  All hives were busy collecting syrup EXCEPT for one hive.  My alpha hive with my coming 4 year old breeder queen hive, my most important hive.  The bees in the alpha hive were just causally going about business and the entrance was not crowded at all.

Concerned is an understatement, my best breeder queen is in this hive.  So at 64F I opened the hive and found the hive covered with calm bees, all ten top frames full of bees.  Honey and bee bread on 9 frames, the empty 10th frame is new frame unwaxed with built in thermometer.  The top winter board had plenty of fondant.  Relief, all is OK with Alpha!!

I believe the hive was so full of stores, there was no rush or worries about collecting syrup.  Not much room in Alpha hive for syrup as this was my third feeding.  Therefore the reason for not much activity on the entrance like the other very active hives.

Blessings
Van
I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: Fall feeding pictures.
« Reply #18 on: November 21, 2019, 10:59:33 pm »
👍🏻
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

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