Feed your bees

[peteinwilts]

I will go and explain to our surviving colonies your theory on scare mongering unfortunately its too late for the 11 we have lost over the last 6 weeks. 1 degree in day time and hard frosts each night . feeding twice a week and watching our hard work perish and then reading you say about scare /doom mongering cheers for that

Percentagewise (& currently!), i am doing no better than you, although i had little hope for a couple before winter..
I have to ask 'why' are you feeding twice a week. The outlook has been relatively accurate fora couple of months, and there is no sign of +15 degrees before the third week of april.
Based on this, isnt it more logical to give them more and disturb them less.
Not being critical... Just seems a bit odd (i only have 25 and streamline as much as possible)

 

[RosieMc]

Just a load of scare mongering IMHO
The temperature over the next 3/4 weeks may be slightly below previous seasonal averages, but I'd bet my house they wont be very far away from the average. The daylight hours we and our bees get will certainly increase and nature will continue on her way with the flora taking its cue to grow abundantly, no doubt things will go slowly with cold weather but leap forwards with each nice day but to suggest spring will provide poor conditions for our bees is doom mongering.
Forecast 7 c this afternoon and bees already collecting pollen.

Lucky you!!!
I do not think the farmers in the UK and IOM would agree with you there when some of them are loosing their sheep because they are buried deep in snow

Taking into account the wind chill factor for Lancashire from netweather.tv the temperature will feel like
Friday 29 March -8C
Sat 30 March -6C
Sun 31 March -7C

Whenever this is chilling wind going to stop?

 

[mbc]

I will go and explain to our surviving colonies your theory on scare mongering unfortunately its too late for the 11 we have lost over the last 6 weeks. 1 degree in day time and hard frosts each night . feeding twice a week and watching our hard work perish and then reading you say about scare /doom mongering cheers for that

Lucky you!!!
I do not think the farmers in the UK and IOM would agree with you there when some of them are loosing their sheep because they are buried deep in snow

Taking into account the wind chill factor for Lancashire from netweather.tv the temperature will feel like
Friday 29 March -8C
Sat 30 March -6C
Sun 31 March -7C

Whenever this is chilling wind going to stop?

Very sorry for any bee or sheep losses experienced, but before having a pop, my post was only referring to this bit of definitive crystal balling as scare mongering :

, the weather over most of the Uk is going to be poor for the bees for the next 3 /4 weeks at least.

 

[Goodwood]

Well its pretty bad in this part of westest Wales too...even though we are on the banks of an estuary.
No snow but continual biting easterly with night time -2/3 and day time maxing out at 5ish centigrade.
Bees in tiny clusters
Swapped fondant on all surviving colonies yesterday for neopoll, which they instantly attacked.
Another two deadouts though, bringing my losses this year to about fifty percent.
In both cases looked like isolation starvation as plenty of capped stores left.
Spoke to my mentor yesterday who with about sixty years of beekeeping to his name, pronouced it the worst run of weather he had ever known....from last April.
"Disasterous for beekeeping" was his desription. And he is not one to exagerate.

 

[itma]

... my post was only referring to this bit of definitive crystal balling as scare mongering :

Originally Posted by sipa
, the weather over most of the Uk is going to be poor for the bees for the next 3 /4 weeks at least.

If none of the forecasting supercomputers are seeing anything indicating a change in the current weather pattern, I'd back them over mbc's seaweed and optimism.

The best available information is that it is going to stay cold for a while yet.
However much we might wish the messenger to bring different news, that is what the news is at the moment.
Sadly.

So the prudent thing is to keep plenty fondant on.

 

[madasafish]

If none of the forecasting supercomputers are seeing anything indicating a change in the current weather pattern, I'd back them over mbc's seaweed and optimism.

The best available information is that it is going to stay cold for a while yet.
However much we might wish the messenger to bring different news, that is what the news is at the moment.
Sadly.

So the prudent thing is to keep plenty fondant on.

Your faith in the Met Office is trusting. But sadly misplaced.

"20 December 2012 - 2013 is expected to be between 0.43 °C and 0.71 °C warmer than the long-term (1961-1990) global average of 14.0 °C, with a best estimate of around 0.57 °C, according to the Met Office annual global temperature forecast.

Taking into account the range of uncertainty in the forecast and observations, it is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest ten years in the record which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012."

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2012/2013-global-forecast


And in 2012

"The Met Office has admitted issuing advice to government that was "not helpful" during last year's remarkable switch in weather patterns.

Between March and April 2012, the UK experienced an extraordinary shift from high pressure and drought to low pressure and downpours.

But the Met Office said the forecast for average rainfall "slightly" favoured drier than average conditions.

The three-month forecast is said to be experimental.
"
It is sent to contingency planners but has been withheld from the public since the Met Office was pilloried for its "barbecue summer" forecast in 2009.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21967190

 

[BeeJayBee]

The best available information is that it is going to stay cold for a while yet.

The Met Office has admitted that their "three-month forecast is said to be experimental. " http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21967190

There are other sites out there.

Metcheck http://www.metcheck.com/UK/#.UVWI6zcWmoU for example, is giving a long range forecast predicting only middle to high tens of degrees (nothing above 20C) through to September.

(@ Madasafish - snap!)

 

[itma]

The Met Office has admitted that their "three-month forecast is said to be experimental. " http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21967190

Most of the time, current technology can give a pretty good picture of the weather patterns for two to three weeks ahead.

Three months is largely crystal-ball gazing, trying to make major inferences from tiny differences in sea temperature, for instance.
/// which is why no such forecast has been published by the Met Office. The probabilistic estimates referred to had to be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The predictability of the weather does change. Sometimes it is more 'chaotic' than others. Right now, it seems that the jetstream isn't going to be flicking up our way in the next few days, and there's little prospect of it doing so in the next couple of weeks.

If anyone thinks they can do better, they can apply to the Met Office.
There they have lots of bright people, enormous computers and a pretty good track record.
I sincerely hope they are wrong about the forecast for the next few weeks, but I wouldn't count on it.

// And for the cost of buying some more fondant, I'm putting my money where the forecast is.

 

[masterBK]

If people fed sufficient in september then much of this fondant feeding wouldn't be necessary.

 

[chycarne]

If in September we knew that March and April would still be cold we would have added more fondant. I for one remember last year and at this time planning on hive splits etc having had a barbecue in 20'C heat at 7pm in the garden (in Cornwall) this year the day time temperature hasnt got above 5'C for 4 weeks. If iI had a forcast saying it was going to be so different I would have fed more. i didnt so i have fed twice so far this year. Interestingly the bees are flying brining in a lot of pollen- Gorse mainly and some willow though the latter is being burnt off by the winds...

 

[Luminos]

If people fed sufficient in september then much of this fondant feeding wouldn't be necessary.

...but...to be fair, you can only give as much as the bees will take down...

 

[mbc]

If none of the forecasting supercomputers are seeing anything indicating a change in the current weather pattern, I'd back them over mbc's seaweed and optimism.
So the prudent thing is to keep plenty fondant on.

While agreeing its a good idea to put fondant on any hives which are hefting light, I'd be interested in a little wager.
My bet is many colonies will be well into their first super before this three or four week "cold" period is over, I'm almost certain many will be in my neck of the woods but I'd even go as far as to say they will be in Kent too.
Watch this space

 

[itma]

...
My bet is many colonies will be well into their first super before this three or four week "cold" period is over, I'm almost certain many will be in my neck of the woods but I'd even go as far as to say they will be in Kent too.
Watch this space

I hope you are right.
But I'm still getting in another box of fondant!

 

[sipa]

Please don't ignore the protein element in feeding.

Fondant / syrup is only half the story. Bees will die without the protein element so feed Pollen / substitute.

It is possible to utilise protein as an energy source but sadly not the other way round, there is no nitrogen in a carbohydrate, fact !

 

[REDWOOD]

Mostly if you live in Westest Wales as mbc does, you live near the sea. Which ameliorates the impact of winter
Not all welsh Beekeepers have their hives by the sea, and temperatures are generally a few degrees lower in our mountainous terrain, usually flora is two or three weeks behind the low lands

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Mostly if you live in Westest Wales as mbc does, you live near the sea. Which ameliorates the impact of winter
Not all welsh Beekeepers have their hives by the sea, and temperatures are generally a few degrees lower in our mountainous terrain, usually flora is two or three weeks behind the low lands

This is evident as i travel home from foreign fields (Birmingham, Gravesend and Plymouth for instance )

 

[richardbees]

but I'd bet my house they wont be very far away from the average

...whatever you do, don't post your home address

 

[RosieMc]

but I'd bet my house they wont be very far away from the average

...whatever you do, don't post your home address

ho ho

 

[mbc]

but I'd bet my house they wont be very far away from the average

...whatever you do, don't post your home address

The nature of betting is that you stand to gain if you guess right.
The odds of the temps for the next month being within a degree or two of the long term average are very good indeed.
Willow is blossoming and I'm seeing more dandelions by the day, and even if "the day after tomorrow" doomsday scenario occurs and the next month is gibbering, my house is safe as no one's taken on the bet

 

[Hivemaker.]

Metcheck http://www.metcheck.com/UK/#.UVWI6zcWmoU for example, is giving a long range forecast predicting only middle to high tens of degrees (nothing above 20C) through to September.

The nature of betting is that you stand to gain if you guess right.

I wonder how confident Metcheck are,would they be willing to take a bet that we don't have a single day above 20c between now and september.

I have seen some of their advanced forcasts saying 3c in july and August, and the temperature turns out to be 26c.