How much do bees eat over winter?

[frenchbees]

Last September I fed sugar syrup till they stopped taking it (7kg) then put on a full super for the winter. They were active till early Nov.
I thought that would probably see them into early spring.
However a quick check at the beginning of January revealed an almost empty super.
They have since gone through 4 kg fondant and are now on their second 4 kg.
(About 1 kg a week) Is this a lot?
There look to be a lot of bees, very few dead put out, perhaps 200 all winter. Are they likely to swarm early?

 

[nonstandard]

During a recent talk at our LBA Andy Wattam NBI suggested that in his experience bees on open (varroa tray out) OMF's consumed about 1/3 more stores through the winter than those on solid or closed (tray in) OMF'S.

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[Finman]

Last September I fed sugar syrup till they stopped taking it (7kg) then put on a full super for the winter. They were active till early Nov.
I thought that would probably see them into early spring.
However a quick check at the beginning of January revealed an almost empty super.
They have since gone through 4 kg fondant and are now on their second 4 kg.
(About 1 kg a week) Is this a lot?
There look to be a lot of bees, very few dead put out, perhaps 200 all winter. Are they likely to swarm early?

With that information it is impossible to say is it normal or not.

How long they had brood since September
How much they had honey as food
Unisulated hive + open mesh froor consumes 100% more food than solid bottom + styrofoam hive ( I bet)

In Finland the hive consumes 2 kg in month in autumn without brood.

Here is some data. That winter was hard.
Macedonica is from Greece and it consumes too much in our winter. It spent 50% more than others.

http://www.mtt.fi/bees/jokioinen09_10.htm

.

 

[Skyhook]

My bees started with brood box no more than 2/3 full- my best estimate about 12-14 kg. I was worried this wouldn't be enough so have been giving them fondant, but they have only taken about 2kg. They've only used about half their stores, so 7+2 = 9kg of stores used.

 

[oliver90owner]

Remember, those stores may have to keep the bees going until mid April dependent, of course, on weather, location, etc.

20kg is the 'sort of norm' for the UK, but who knows what some of these imported strains use. Brooding periods normally take, by far, the majority of the stores, so if your bees are brooding late into the autumn, or are 'stimulated' into brooding (too) early in spring that figure above can easily be exceeded. This could result in a need to feed extra winter fondant and/or the risk of colony starvation in spring.

RAB

 

[Arfermo]

If they are using such a large amount of fondant at this stage in the new year, I think I would be worried that they are storing it in cells that will otherwise be required for the build-up of brood which is soon to start. Needs watching very carefully.

 

[frenchbees]

They were active till early Nov so probably had brood till then? Didn't inspect after giving them the super so not sure.
Super had about 14kg honey.
They are on an omf.
Difficult to inspect bb to see if they are storing fondant there, not really warm enough to open up but I will check on the next warm day. If they are storing fondant should I replace some frames with empty frames?
The empty super is full of bees, I thought they were all in the super, but lifting it up a couple of centimeters to look in the bb lots of bees there as well. When I opened up to add the 2nd batch of fondant there was a carpet about 3 bees thick on the inside of the crown board.

 

[Vergilius]

They'll start to eat more with the milder weather... From now is the time that colonies are most likely to starve.


Ben P

 

[Finman]

They'll start to eat more with the milder weather... From now is the time that colonies are most likely to starve.


Ben P

All researches show that bees use more food in cold.

Reason in mild weather is that they have some brood and they keep 36C instead of non brood temp 23C

They starve in spring because food is enough to spring, but not enough to summer.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i work on the basics of 10 kilos till christmas and 20 kg after christmas till spring(april)

what the girls dont have in the brood box you need to make sure its feed instead