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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Allen Dick <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 5 Oct 2000 08:27:04 -0600
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> I think that a colony *prepares itself* for winter and ensures the
> conditions for its own success. If these conditions are lacking it is
> very difficult to simulate them. I combined many colonies last fall
> and I must say that the effort was mostly wasted...

I think this is a good point, and we must add to that the fact that this takes
time during weather that is warm enough for the bees to work wax.  For good
wintering up here in Western Canada, the bees need some time to get settled, and
re-arranging of the brood combs after August can be fatal.

That having been said, we find combining works, provided that entire brood
supers are stacked up without their combs being rearranged.  Bees can also be
shaken from sacrificed hives and partial brood chambers into the ones that are
being kept, as suggested.

> ...the best tactic for weak colonies is to shake the bees out and store the
equipment.

> a weak hive is probably mostly old bees and have little to add to any other
hive.

This is a generalisation, which is often as not true, but there are many
exceptions such as hives that superseded, were sprayed, were started late, etc.
It is possible to examine the bees and see if they are young and healthy or
mite-eaten and old. It is also possible to examine the brood of a weak hive and
decide if it is healthy and well fed.

Assuming that the weak hives are otherwise good, it often works to make a double
hive out of the main brood chambers of each and shaking in the stray bees from
other boxes.  It is not necessary to seek out the queens.  The bees will take
care of that.

> The time to prepare for winter
> is in the summer, requeening and such. by fall, the die is cast. some
> will not make it, and there's little to be done.

This is basically true, but the methods described above can help salvage
worthwhile bees and brood and we have been quite successful with hives made up
of two, three, or even four weaker hives.

The question of feed is the difficult one, since any hive that has been
starving, will be made up of bees that will prove to be useless for wintering.
Even a short period of feed shortage will weaken a hive beyond recovery, since
the bees wear themselves out looking for food or deplete their body reserves.

Assuming the hives are light and not starving and that feed is being applied as
soon as the condition is observed, there are many ways to feed -- even all
winter -- and they have been  discussed in detail here, so I won't go into
detail and leave those interested to look in the archives (which I hope we all
keep bookmarked and which I hope we consult often).

David's dry sugar method, which I saw demonstrated when I visited him, is simple
and works well in his area which is pretty far south.  Up here in the Great
White North (and it is white today), it is a prescription for rapid hive death.
The best feeding methods for our area are feeding concentrated sugar syrup at
67% sugar by weight or volume (doesn't matter) or of combs of honey placed in
the outside frames.

FWIW, we are still feeding and have 100 drums of syrup left to put out yet.  We
are confident they will be consumed, since it only takes a day or two of weather
suitable for bee flight.  We feed outside in drums and they will forage for it
late in the season when they will not do much with inside feeders.  The fact
that they go to get it ensures that it is warm enough for them to eliminate the
excess water as well.

Another possibility is fondant placed above the cluster, but we had limited
success with it this spring, but Murray makes it work well for him in a cool
climate.

Most inside feeders stop working in cold weather unless they are in direct
contact with the cluster.  Bees cease using them even in weather when they will
go to a drum outside or rob another hive.

There is even the chance the cluster will actually move into a Miller feeder and
perish, since they lose contact with their comb.  Moreover top insulation which
is essential in the North cannot work when a Miller type feeder is on.  Division
board feeders can work, but are off to the side and do not hold enough to do the
job.

I saw a beekeeper maintain hives all winter with a gallon wine bottle with a
long neck and a single nail hole thrust down through the top insulation.
However his hives were not much to look at in the spring.

It takes good bees to start and combs full of honey or syrup with some pollen
buried to keep them in top shape.  That is hard to set up late in the season.
We are currently feeding just to top up the supplies, not to remedy starvation.

allen
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A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/Diary/

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