Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Aroc on October 28, 2017, 10:16:35 pm
-
It got so cold so fast here....from 90deg to 30deg in just 48 hours a couple of weeks ago I elected to remove the top feeders and go ahead and put my quilt boxes on. I didn't have enough emergency food made up for all the hives so I just put the brick on the two I thought would need it the most until I got some more made.
Fast forward a few weeks. Although the weather stabilized it never really got much colder. A few days have gotten into the lower 60's. I realize I removed the syrup too early. Last year it wasn't until the end of October. At any rate I decided to go in today and put some fondant we had made. To my amazement one of the hives had completely taken all the sugar bricks I gave them about 3 weeks ago. Glad I decided to take a look. I was going to assume they wouldn't touch it until next year but it has been warm enough they too it all.
Lesson learned. Don't let a hiccup determine your course of action. I should have left everything until November, just like last year.
-
You might want to think more about that. You lucked out, but no two years are exactly the same. Did you take a second look last year? If you had you might have found the same thing you found this year. Actually, you put a foreign substance in your hives both years and maybe they just got it out of the hives. What do you know for sure?
-
I was able to see the sugar bricks in the hives through the upper entrance all year until spring.
-
You better hope they are not eating sugar now cus they got a long way to go. They can't eat sugar when they are clustered. They need water.
-
Speaking of water as Ace mentioned: My bees were on their water dispensers, just plain water, like it was sugar syrup (10/29/17). Here in N. Arkansas we had frost past two mornings, mid 50's for a high and very thirsty bees.
Blessings
-
Here in N. Arkansas we had frost past two mornings, mid 50's for a high and very thirsty bees.
Snap ...
(https://images2.imgbox.com/fe/ff/wyNvI0h5_o.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/wyNvI0h5)
And that's why I'm currently feeding sugar myself - to cover the period between syrup feeding and the onset of winter proper.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/82/43/40CFei7m_o.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/40CFei7m)
At present, it's still warm enough during the day for them to collect water if needed, but there's precious little of anything of substance coming into the hives. A small amount of pollen on good flying days, but that's about all. I really don't want them digging-in to their winter stores this early, if it can possibly be avoided.
The larger hives (those with 12" deep frames) are of no concern - they can look after themselves ok - it's only the smaller ones, and the nucs of course, which I tend to fuss over like a mother-hen.
LJ
-
LJ,,, In that pic, the one of the windshield with frost, is that your Bentley, Sir Lil John? I'll bet you have Royal Honey Bees. Here in the states we have royal jelly :-).
Blessings
-
Last gasp of winter for us down under, had a light frost this morning and snow 500 feet higher yesterday.