>>>6. The ideal is a draught free, unheated, unlighted, preferably unused
(for other purposes) outhouse.
That's more or less what we have, a partial open shed, nothing fancy,
nothing heated, just a building with a roof on top, some sidewalls that are
closed in and some that are still open. The bees could leave anytime if
they so decide.
We consider ourselves not real beginners anymore but are now in the years
of trying different things. It is time to find out what might work better
for our area and what would be useless to continue as done before. Even
though last year we had an almost 100% success rate of overwintering we
don't expect this to happen that easy again. My husband is attempting to
find ways to improve his overwintering technics. We will move them into the
beehouse for another winter, will place them on the boxes where we could
plug in a lightbulb if the temperature plungs too deep. We may not have to
feed them as much as last year since it seems that on the whole their
storage situation this year so far is much better as compared to last year
around this time where they had practically no stores due to a no good summer.
I have been listening to the comments made on the overwintering topic, and
I don't have of course the many years of beekeeping behind me that some of
you do. We have had however lost hives over past winters and since we are
only a small apiary, it is devastating to loose hives. We have tried hard
to decide why loss occurred and then we tried measures to prevend such loss
again. Maybe we make ourselves too much work with moving them to the
beehouse for the winter but we haven't really come across anything better
yet to help those bees survive.
I mentioned to my husband what had been discussed on this topic recently.
He then said amongst other things, if the bees don't have the added
advantage of that touch of warmth that the light bulb provided and the
added insulation around the hives, they would just huddle up (cluster) and
they would not move to the left or right or even up top to get at the food.
They starve to death and they also freeze to death. This wasn't just a
problem with us, we were told that this was kinda common in Terrace too,
and the recommendation to wrap up the hives the way he does it now came
from there to him. Don't know where he got the extra box with the light
bulb idea though.
One other difference I noticed from comments and pictures on some web
sites. Maybe I understand this wrong. For us a normal hive is the bottom
(brood with a bit of storage) box with 10 frames, then the 2nd (storage
with a bit of brood) box with 10 frames. Then during the summer usually a
3rd box (storage) is added on to the top. Now to us a strong hive is one
that extends itself completely and then some more over those 3 boxes = 1
hive. (A 4th box will seldom be filled or even drawn out during the summers.)
I seem to understand from some comments however, that people call a strong
hive when they are only in the bottom box over most of the 10 frames and
also cover about 4 or 6 frames of the second box. Doesn't make sense to us
and I wonder if I misunderstood. A hive with that few only is a hive we
call a smaller one and that might be about the size of hive we come out of
a winter with. A hive that covers only one box and approx. another half box
may be too small to survive our winters, so my husband told me this evening.
On another subject, but certainly related to the topic of bees. Comments
were made to go search the extensive archives on any topic imaginable.
Maybe I'm too new at these email lists but I feel I'm getting a bit
overwhelmed when I have to go search some archives. Frankly I don't really
have the time for that until maybe winter, and to me it has been extremely
helpful when people respond with their experiences to questions. Still we
could go later on to search some archives but for right now, when someone
needs an answer now on whatever, personally I like seeing the different
responses from different people when someone wants to know something. Maybe
that isn't too professional and maybe it's reinventing the wheel but ..
since I'm just a small time beekeeper I beg to differ a bit.
Maybe I'm on the wrong kind of list? I believe that this list is for
professional beekeepers (with lots of hives) and also for small hometype
beekeepers (with a few hives)? I miss the personal stuff a bit that for
example tells why a person is a beekeeper and why in their area he or she
does whatever he or she feels is right to do. I don't know how to explain
that better. Scientific lectures are ok but small talk type of discussions
are also needed, I believe.
Anyway. Three of my hives were moved back to the beehouse during the last
three days, and hopefully tomorrow will see the move of the fourth and last
one. Then I evaluate the situation and during the next few weeks make
changes, adjustments, and get them ready a bit more. Mr. Junior Black Bear
has been coming by regularly these last few days too but so far we caught
his advances in time and so far all he got was a sniff of some honey but no
taste of it yet (husband keeps promising Junior Bear a taste of something
else if he doesn't stay away). The hives will be much more safer in their
winter location too in case of grizzlies or black bears who will pass
through the area again during the fall.They like to investigate, those
beasties.
Maybe I also should mention this too: To us it is not yet a priority to get
honey out of the bees, first we want to learn ways to keep them - keep
through winters, through summers. So far this year it seems that we could
take some honey away for us but we might just do some reshuffling of the
honey frames instead to ensure that each of the four hives has enough honey
winter storage, and that way we might not need to feed much syrup this year.
Ma. / Nass Valley - British Columbia CANADA
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