BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM.

Mid to Late Winter emergency feeding

(1/4) > >>

buzzbee:
https://youtu.be/C0NOAslznCo

Bruce:
Though I generally don't feed my bees mid to late winter is an exception. For new beekeepers a misconception is that bees are very fragile. If you "quickly" (the few seconds needed - don't pull frames) and intelligently (not in a snow storm and not often) open your hive in winter they will not die and you can check on their food supply. You can cook fondant and add an acid to invert the sugar (bees do that in their nectar tommy) but it's not necessary if you are lazy like me and Michael Bush ( http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm). Here are a few tips on feeding bees in winter http://strathconabeekeepers.blogspot.ca/2014/01/feeding-bees-in-winter.html . 

iddee:
You don't need to open them at all if you just heft them regularly. You can tell by the weight if they need feed. Then you can drop a patty or sugar brick on in much less time when you do have to open one.

little john:
I agree - there's really no need to ever open a hive in winter in order to check stores or give supplementary/ emergency feed.  For myself, there's little point in hefting as only a few of my hives are of the same construction and thus weight - otherwise I would.  Instead, I use insulated inverted jars over purpose-made holes in the crown board (inner cover), which - from January/February onwards contain either fondant or damp-set sugar.  I can then very quickly monitor these jars on (typically) a weekly basis, without opening the hive itself, and replenish them only if necessary.  Which, in practice, is very seldom.

I haven't lost a single colony from starvation since I adopted this measure some years ago.
http://heretics-guide.atwebpages.com/beek02.htm

LJ

BeeMaster2:
Good article. Thanks for sharing.
Jim

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page