From: Debbee Corcoran 
'In my humble opinion I agree with Cam regarding the insulation of hives; I believe this subject was touched upon a few years ago where I shared a paper written by a couple from the UK. Insulation is put on all sides and in the outer cover with a sugar shim w/entrance below that acts as a moisture quilt. As an experiment I kept most of the insulation on a top bar I have, removing the ins. on the bottom and on top of the bars. The hive did great. Located in partial shade in western Catskills NY. They did eat more stores over the winter but they made it through well. I keep this TB at one end of the yard with the buckfast hives.'

Not so much a problem here and in terms of habitat for the bees this is a good place to raise bees but a poor area to capture a honey crop. After this past huge rain we now have lots of pollen coming in and some nectar.  At this time in terms of business structure it is less risky for me to raise bees although I sell all the honey I can produce (all local).  There is just not so much of that and in some years (the drought of 2011 comes to mine) there is no honey and bees to feed.  I typically make up nucs here in the early spring (starting with the first cells coming off in late February) and again in the fall (preference here is with mated queens) and skip the hotter months. The spring nucs I make up with greater population in the box and the fall less adult workers (but enough to pretty much cover the comb). Hive beetles are now a major concern so you need some population but not too much.  I start these out in the spring in 3 way queen castles (3 frames per slot) and in the fall in Jester EZ boxes (4 frames/box).  Due to hive beetles I like to keep the frames pushed away from the wall (I don't crowd frames in the Jester boxes). I typically sets these out in sets of twos on pallets and place an old lid over the two boxes to hold the lid down and somewhat shield the units from excessive heat.  Quart size baggie feeders works real well with the Jester boxes... it is just a real clean, no drown bees way to feed small groups of bees.  All the nucs that are sold (I keep some as replacement stock) leave here in Jester boxes and are advertised as 4 frame nucs although if they set here long enough they may well leave here with 5 frames.

Gene in Central Texas

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