Feeding Fondant

[Hivemaker.]

Rab.......I think you love the new beehaus really,have you bought one as a christmas present for you or your bee's yet,well easter present at least.

 

[oliver90owner]

Defintely not in love with the plastic beetainer. I do buy myself Christmas presents (well she can't decide what I want/need) but J actually went with me this year to buy it. I will let you know what it is in about a week's time when I have tried it out.

OOPs ! J tells me this is the first year I have really chosen my main Christmas prezzie, and so known what it will be.

The only new year present for the bees will be the poly nuc, if I get any - and some new foundation from KBS (thanks to your recommendation - so it better be good!). At least I think it was you, among others.

Regards, RAB

 

[thurrock bees]

Rab.......I think you love the new beehaus really,have you bought one as a christmas present for you or your bee's yet,well easter present at least.

im not a fan of the plastic beehives, but everyone has there own choice of hives, im a wood person.
TB

 

[Hivemaker.]

It is good foundation Rab,and much cheaper than most other suppliers.

Think i may just be knocking up a few long box's after xmas,nothing elaborate,osb to hold 33 frames,maybe even try some wellingtonia,as i have aquired rather a lot of it.

 

[victor meldrew]

You said it

 

[oliver90owner]

wellingtonia

Wiki says too brittle and fibrous for most machining operations, so not a popular timber.

I never used it when I was machining timber.

Regards, RAB

 

[oliver90owner]

im not a fan of the plastic beehives

I think, in all probability, I will try at least one of those poly nucs. Wood has served us well for the last hundred-odd years or more.

There may be more cons than pros where the revolutionary new beetainers are concerned (compared to wood), particularly from what I have seen on youtube - but that may be the operation that is in question!

Regards, RAB

 

[Hivemaker.]

You only read the first bit Rab, referring to giant mature sequoia,being fibrous and brittle.
The one's grown in this country are not as old for obvious reasons,and they are not brittle,and machines absolutely fine,and i have sawmilled and machined it,just not made anything from it yet.
Also very durable.

from wiki,the bit below the bit you were reading i assume.


The wood from immature trees is less brittle, with recent tests on young plantation-grown trees showing it similar to Coast Redwood wood in quality. This is resulting in some interest in cultivating Giant Sequoia as a very high-yielding timber crop tree, both in California and also in parts of western Europe, where it may grow more efficiently than Coast Redwoods. In the northwest United States some entrepreneurs have also begun growing Giant Sequoias for Christmas trees

Suspect its just some bad films that have put you of the new revolutionary beehaus,many people were a bit scared of new things in the past,like going from horse and cart to car ect.

 

[Floss]

Thanks for all your advice - I was hoping to get some on either today (being the shortest day) or over Christmas but I am right in assuming that it is too cold to open them up ? I am sure I have read that it needs to be 4c and it is -1 to - 3 here (during day) at the moment.

Tx

Floss

 

[MJBee]

Floss,
Are you going to trickle OA? If so I would do both together - Roof off, cover board off, trickle, eke on, fondant on, coverboard and roof replaced.
The whole operation should only take about 90 seconds as long as you have everything to hand before you lift the roof off.
I plan to "do" mine between Christmas and New Year and routinely put on 2kg per hive - if they want it they take it - better safe than sorry.
Mike

 

[oliver90owner]

If they need it, they need it. they will be consuming even more stores with the temperature 'down in the basement'. That is one reason why I would feed over the crown board - no need to actually open the whole top of the hive.

On the other hand, it may be so cold that the cluster will be unable to move.

Winter feeding of fondant is usually a 'much later in the season' need, when the cluster can actually break between the cold spells and the bees are starting brooding for spring increase.

Regards, RAB

 

[Floss]

Tx Mike, I have already OA'd them about a week ago - it is v cold here at the mo' and no respite is sight!

 

[SixFooter]

I'm not an expert, but I thought/heard/read somewhere that you put syrup in a feeder above a hole in the crown board because this will make the bees tend to take it down to store in frames. In Winter, fondant is put directly over the frames because the bees will just treat it as stores, use what they need, but not move it.

And I know that the bees dont read the books!

 

[MJBee]

Bees USUALLY take fondant as they need it which is why I put it on the top bars when I OA in early January - it is available if they want it.
However I have heard of cases where the bees have taken it down and stored it, I suspect that this happened when the bees were out of their cluster and were treating the fondant as a "flow",
Mike

 

[Somerford]

trick of raising the crown board on match sticks

Regards, RAB

My old mentor used to do this every winter - also a very thick old blanket was put across the crown board too.

In all the time I knew him he never lost a hive over winter (BVetc) but I have tended to just make sure the hive is full of stores, syrup or otherwise, batten down the hatches and leave them alone until spring - definitely no extra insulation etc etc.

Some years my hives have a little problem with mould on the back frame/under the cover board, but not always. It will be interesting to see how they are when I treat them next week with Oxalic. Only then will I heft the hives to check the weight and consider putting fondant on.

regards

S


PS. BVetc = Before varroa etc

 

[oliver90owner]

Somerford,

The prevailing weather conditions may make a difference to how damp the hive becomes. It was certainly wet and soggy in my early winters as a beekeeper, but I cannot remember the precise weather patterns. I know I did not like the mould on some of the outer-most frames although my mentor said it was not too serious as the brood nest was dry.

I rather like the idea of raising the brood from the floor by a few mm when on a solid floor - a similar situation to an OMF - but old carpet tiles or squares of scrap carpet (inherited from the previous hive owners) are all in the past now - just a sheet of expanded polystyrene above and adequate bottom ventilation through the OMFs is my formula.

Polystyrene on the sides almost certainly encourages the spring expansion, as I have noticed the brood nest expands almost to the hive walls at an earlier stage. Again, might just be our warm spring weather of recent years, but I think not; Finmans experience and polyhive users' opinions all to add weight to that notion.

My opinion is that a standard brood and a super is required for wintering with an open OMF as there is adequate available height for the bees to cluster higher if necessary.

Extra baffling to prevent any draughts might be an option but I am not going to get into trying it as a contolled experiment 'cos with 14 x 12s my formula works OK for me. A board under the Dartingtons or the varroa test board under the Nationals is easy to administer.

Regards, RAB

 

[Poly Hive]

If the hive material makes no odds why these?

A. Winter Clustering around the front of the frames so as to be in contact with the side and front of the hive.

B. Spring Brood rearing starting on the outside frame next to the hive side?

I have never seen such behaviour in wooden hives.

PH

 

[RoofTops]

In the US some beekeepers use a slatted rack to reduce drafts around the bottom of the brood frames. They may be used in Europe but there are plenty of links to them on US sites, like this one: http://www.beesource.com/files/slatrack.pdf

The device fits between the floor and the bottom brood box and serves a simliar function to fitting a shallow super in the same position, except it doesn't have stores.