Fed too little too late - survival chances and best course action?

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ksjs

House Bee
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Messages
195
Reaction score
0
Location
North Wales
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
My 2nd year (first full year) of keeping bees and I made a potentially bad mistake: I had it in my mind that I fed in October last year when in fact I didn't, I had started in September. Anyway, this year I started feeding in Oct and decided to try a thicker syrup (2:1) to make life easier in terms of evaporating water.

Trouble is this mix kept crystallising and blocking feed holes so even though feed was on there were some days when it wasn't accessible for the bees.

They stopped taking feed about 2 weeks ago and I now have 3 hives as follows:

1 with about 8 frames of stores
1 with about 6 frames of stores
1 with about 3 frames of stores

Each are national hives and the number of frames of stores corresponds pretty much to the size of the colony. The hive with 3 frames was a nuc (following a swarm) that never really got going. It will now be wintering as a nuc again.

Apart from keeping my fingers crossed, vowing to try and never make assumptions based on what I think I did the previous year again and ensuring there is fondant permanently available to all colonies throughout winter is there anything else I can be doing?

By the way, I didn't want to unite the nuc as I was keen to see if a smaller colony could get through the winter and how they might perform next year.

Any suggestions much appreciated.
 
For the size boxes they are in i would say they should be ok, at least until xmas maybe jan. I would heft them now and then regularly through the winter. Then if your getting worried they are getting light pop some fondant ontop of the frames, at least 2kg at a time.

If you put the fondant on please remember to carry on checking so they dont use it all and then have nothing to eat.
 
For the size boxes they are in i would say they should be ok, at least until xmas maybe jan. I would heft them now and then regularly through the winter. Then if your getting worried they are getting light pop some fondant ontop of the frames, at least 2kg at a time.

If you put the fondant on please remember to carry on checking so they dont use it all and then have nothing to eat.

:iagree:

It could be that syrup crystallized after they had got what they wanted and will be OK. Try not worry but keep an eye on the weights as dp4 suggests just in case.
 
May also depend on the type of bees you have as some are far more frugal in their use of stores than others.... survival of the fittest and all that !
 
2:1 syrup is fine, blocked holes in feeder is probably the sugar had not dissolved fully in the water, to achieve this heating until sugar has been completely dissolved but do not boil. They need 20kg to survive the winter so defiantly need feeding with fondant, you can do it now with the colony with the least amount of stores and keep a check on the others
 
i suspect they have collected a lot of ivy nectar on their own without you feeding syrup

it is posssble for a colony to collect enough ivy nectar and other late nectar to survive winter if the honey supers are taken off early
 
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I agree with MMetro - it's been an exceptionally good year for Ivy nectar around here but not really relevant for you in N Wales. Anyway, nothing else you can do so stop worrying!

Out of interest, have you tried weighing them? A National BB (less roof and stand) should weigh about 60lbs now.
 
For the size boxes they are in i would say they should be ok, at least until xmas maybe jan. I would heft them now and then regularly through the winter. Then if your getting worried they are getting light pop some fondant ontop of the frames, at least 2kg at a time.

If you put the fondant on please remember to carry on checking so they dont use it all and then have nothing to eat.
:iagree::iagree: I always wrap my fondant in cling film and poke a hole in one side and place the hole over the cluster they then eat into it and this stops the fondant from taking in water & going all soft & goowie over the bees
 
My 2nd year (first full year) of keeping bees and I made a potentially bad mistake: I had it in my mind that I fed in October last year when in fact I didn't, I had started in September. Anyway, this year I started feeding in Oct and decided to try a thicker syrup (2:1) to make life easier in terms of evaporating water.

Trouble is this mix kept crystallising and blocking feed holes so even though feed was on there were some days when it wasn't accessible for the bees.

They stopped taking feed about 2 weeks ago and I now have 3 hives as follows:

1 with about 8 frames of stores
1 with about 6 frames of stores
1 with about 3 frames of stores

Each are national hives and the number of frames of stores corresponds pretty much to the size of the colony. The hive with 3 frames was a nuc (following a swarm) that never really got going. It will now be wintering as a nuc again.

Apart from keeping my fingers crossed, vowing to try and never make assumptions based on what I think I did the previous year again and ensuring there is fondant permanently available to all colonies throughout winter is there anything else I can be doing?

By the way, I didn't want to unite the nuc as I was keen to see if a smaller colony could get through the winter and how they might perform next year.

Any suggestions much appreciated.
wooden hives ?
 
May also depend on the type of bees you have as some are far more frugal in their use of stores than others.... survival of the fittest and all that !
IIRC the previous generation (all new queens this year - progeny of my first) used about 3-4 frames of the 10 they had so hopefully the frugality has been passed on.
 
Did you open up to find the stores level, if so when?Temp? etc
Didn't take frames out, just counted from above with crown board off so not 100% accurate at all but figured that damaging bridge comb and thereby depleting stores further and generally pissing them off looking at them during cooler temps (let's say 10oC) wasn't the best way forward. This was last w/e.
 
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