Hi Ainars and all,
nice to hear somebody from near country as Latvia is. The last years we have
first fly very early and i member a year when my bees flew 24-th December
like on spring. And the spring startes erlier than times ago and winters
arenīt so hard and cold like my grandparents member.
> I suppose that you have spring 2-3 weeks earlier as we in Latvia. In some
> years we have first fly in the end of February, beginning of March, the
> temperature should be +9-10C, sunshine, no wind.
> The problems can cause cold weather, because bees should maintain high
> temperature in hive for broods (approx.+33C). If first fly is so early, it
> is big possibility that cold and snow will still come.
> If there is a longer period of cold, bees are consuming a lot of honey and
> you can loose them due to starvation. Or they cannot maintain temperature
> enough for brooding. Very important is insulation of your hives to prevent
> warm losses. Stimulating with candy is advisable ( if you have natural
honey
> and pollen sources at that time and warm weather then is no need for
candy,
> of course). Treatment of varroa should be started. It is very important
how
> you prepared your hives for wintering, because beekeepers year starts in
> autumn.
I think i have isolated my hives well, walls are fat and they are from
duble-wood and between is polystyren or raspings. Bees have enought honey
sugar sirup ) in the time, becouse they arnīt brooding so intensive now,
but critical is March or April, when they make much brood and they need more
temperature in a bigger hive-area. But is possible to isolate hive more and
I use PVC succesfuly.
We donīt treat bees against varroa in my country in spring usually, becouse
we do it since end of summer by acaricides. Sometimes we treat bees in
spring if manny varoa mites fall down during winter period and it is
observed by Czech veterinary.
> P.S. I would be very glad to know if there are any beekeepers from
> Scandinavia, Baltic states or Eastern Europe on the list. What is your
> experience?
I donīt know any beekeepers from these countries, except Esad from Bosnia.
It would be interesting to know more beekeepers from the area.
How many hives have you got? How long do you do beekeeping? How much
average ) honey do you have usually? Which kind of honey do you product -
flower, rape, briar or dark from wood ?
Good luck
Martin
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