Fera Warning.

[moor141]

Received Fera warning tonight re starving bees. Already feeding 4 out of 6 of my colonies. Full inspection today revealed that all stores are very low. However does seem to be a slight flow coming in today.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Received one of those emails too.

 

[the naked beekeeper]

ignore

 

[moor141]

Ah well ??

 

[BeeJayBee]

ignore

Why?

 

[Arfermo]

QUOTE=BeeJoyful;229187]Why?[/QUOTE]

Why. Useful advice to novices.

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Feed them or you may have to deal with something else a bit later on, stress can bring on other problems....

 

[Nic Rhodes]

you just need to check them, if they are short of food only then feed them, if not don't. You should be checking regularly from now on in anyway as most have completed their initial inspections for the year by now. I had to remove food from mine to give them the space they needed but each area will be different.

 

[DanBee]

you just need to check them, if they are short of food only then feed them, if not don't. You should be checking regularly from now on in anyway as most have completed their initial inspections for the year by now. I had to remove food from mine to give them the space they needed but each area will be different.

Started hefting regularly in early Feb, fondant on hand for emergency feed, then switched to liquid (slow feeders) in March for any that needed it. This is a very unusual season, much of the current starvation risk is, I believe, due to the very abnormal temperatures and activity into November and December.

 

[susbees]

This is a very unusual season, much of the current starvation risk is, I believe, due to the very abnormal temperatures and activity into November and December.

Whether it's due to the Autumn weather, the Spring weather or strain of bee...no matter, and there are a lot of beekeepers who can heft reliably in winter with a relatively stable broodnest (and many who can't) BUT I'd hazard a guess that many won't be able to heft reliably now as the weight of bees, brood and pollen has to be factored in and possibly additional boxes. But maybe you aren't hefting now DanBee?

I'd stick with the quick in and check the outer frame now it's April. One of our BKA I was on the phone to yesterday said he's never seen a Spring like this in 40 years of beekeeping. Beginners' Practical days off this weekend for the second time - so I get a whole afternoon to....do other bee stuff instead. Again.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Started hefting regularly in early Feb, fondant on hand for emergency feed, then switched to liquid (slow feeders) in March for any that needed it. This is a very unusual season, much of the current starvation risk is, I believe, due to the very abnormal temperatures and activity into November and December.

Our bees are crammed in, it doesn't look as if they've stopped brood raising even though the temperatures have dropped. We thought it might be because there are more than enough bees to keep the temperature high enough.

Question - How long can home-made 1:1 syrup be kept in a sealed bucket?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Question - How long can home-made 1:1 syrup be kept in a sealed bucket?

Sometimes it ferments quickly. If it's clear of yeasts then it won't ferment for a much lonmger time. Cold will slow down the fermenting of course.

 

[DanBee]

Question - How long can home-made 1:1 syrup be kept in a sealed bucket?

Useful until it goes mouldy or starts to ferment - has a distinct whiff/taste of alcohol. probably 3 weeks at the moment, 1-2 weeks in the summer. Thymol helps delay the onset of mould.

I use Ambrosia, which does not suffer from this and has a shelf life of at least a year.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Thanks.

I made some syrup earlier in the week, but didn't need to use it because there were enough frames of stores. I wondered how long it might last before it has to be thrown away.

I know that bees will drink from swimming pools, so guessed that this ( - very, very, dilute bleach - ) might work. http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-beespart-4-timing-and-tummy-aches/

Has anybody here successfully tried it?

A quote

I performed a simple experiment: I filled a quart jar of syrup every hour, adding bleach at 32 ppm, and immediately sealed each jar. At the end of 8 hours I had a series of chlorinated jars, from 1 – 8 hours old, plus an unchlorinated control. At that time I added 5ml of actively fermenting syrup to each jar, and placed them all in an incubator at 80°F. I expected to see a gradation of microbe growth after incubation, due to the stepping down of initial free chlorine concentrations. However, the result was that microbes grew only in the control jar. Even those chlorinated jars that showed zero ppm free chlorine by test, still completely stopped microbe growth for weeks! Apparently, the chlorine binds or reacts with the sugar in a reversible manner, and retains its germicidal qualities.

I fed chlorinated 1:1 sucrose syrup to a few hundred colonies for several weeks this summer, with great results. The bees appeared to build up fine, and my feeder jars did not get the black growth on the insides, and rarely fermented. Fresh chlorinated syrup also disinfects jars that aren’t too dirty. However, it wasn’t as effective in gallon insert feeders. So adding a cup of bleach per drum (or 1 teaspoon per gallon) appears to work fine (although I’d sure like to see one of the bee labs test it for long-term effects).​