Is it now time to winter feed?

[Hivemaker.]

My bees are working flat out on the ivy and still taking syrup . Rapid feeders may be a better idea than contact feeders at this time of year ( the bees can then choose wether or not to take the syrup and they wont get a drenching thats possible from a contact feeder as the vacuum loosens when the day warms up ) but I certainly wouldnt be going round telling people that their too late for feeding !

I agree,as long as the bee's are actively collecting nectar from nature, then it's obviously not to late to feed,or the bee's would not be doing it.

 

[keithgrimes]

Guys, surely a hard winter is good for us?
If you have got the stores into your colonies of course which is where this thread started.

Condensation is much more of a colony killer than cold I thought?
A consistent cold winter means less movement / ball expansion, no unpredictable warm spells in Jan / Feb means no sudden higher energy requirement and/or volatility in the nest ball that might leave stragglers vulnerable when it cools again.

Thoughts?

P.S. interested to know what long / med term weather sources you are using, always been of the view that you need multiple opinions on forward weather but never gone to the trouble of assembling such a group of sources.

The experts around here reckon that the low Varroa counts in this area this year are largely down to the hard winter we had.

 

[madasafish]

Anything the Met Office says is carp .. if it relates to more than two weeks ahead.

Their track record of forecasting six months ahead is of total and abject failure. Period.

We had a "hard" winter and late spring 2009-10 with frosts in May but that's no different to the winters we had in the 1980s.


Of course it was cold but "hard"? Nope. No 3 metre snowdrifts lying for months as in 1963 or was it 1960? (I was living in Banffshire at the time).

We only had one night of -19C.. I've driven in Scotland when the outside temperature was lower than that at 8pm. -21C ..early 1999/2000 iirc.

Already seeing 4C at night - but no frost so mild here..

 

[Storm™]

Duno what the outside temp was last night, but this morning - scrapey scape on the windscreen. And its freezing. Fog. And the sky looks like snow. And thats North Cornwall. Met office crap at predicting here, two moors, two coastlines, high torrs, dips, micro climates. The best forecasts are surfing websites if your nearish to the coast. We watch the weather like hawks and October is the start of the good stuff (surfwise). IMHO we will be having a (as far as recent times go) hard winter. My prediction is a freezing end to this month, couple of coldish months 10 - 14 degrees with rain lows at night 4 - 5, gales etc, then watch out for late December to mid January. It will be a shocker.

 

[victor meldrew]

Of course it was cold but "hard"? Nope. No 3 metre snowdrifts lying for months as in 1963 or was it 1960? (I was living in Banffshire at the time).

1963 . had a daughter born 6th January . no water for 6 weeks ,all frozen up .
I was carrying water before setting off to work and again on returning .
No help from the then called 'water board' or the local council. In exasperation I dug down to the water main, placed a bucket of hot coals directly on the water main (it was either sh*t or bust )
Did the trick without incidence happily .
Last Winter hard ? Ney lad it were but a hiccup !

John Wilkinson

 

[aseeryl]

Note the Met Office (taxpayer funded - ?£180,000,00 per year) has stopped their "medium range" seasonal forecasts due to their abject failures - we are still funding the garbage they regurgitate, examining my grannies toenail clippings would be a better gamble than relying on them. Of course, the same discredited "computer models" are used to accurately predict the climate 50-100 years hence - what a joke.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Anything the Met Office says is carp .. if it relates to more than two weeks ahead.

Very generous there madasafish - I'd have thought 2 days about their limit!

 

[RoofTops]

The experts around here reckon that the low Varroa counts in this area this year are largely down to the hard winter we had.

This is supported by the experience of a bee farmer I know in Finland. They have long hard winters there and he finds a single application of OA is all he needs to do in terms of varroa control. No summer treatment - although their summer is of course a bit shorter than I ours I guess.

 

[Skyhook]

Very generous there madasafish - I'd have thought 2 days about their limit!

 

[sahtlinurk]

Back to feeding question, if short of stores and too late for syrup why not to give some fondant under the cb? Just a thought.

 

[Queens59]

We live 10 miles from the Met Office in Exeter - and they NEVER get their prediction for our weather right...they'd do better looking out of the window!!

 

[KayJ]

Guys, surely a hard winter is good for us?
If you have got the stores into your colonies of course which is where this thread started.

Condensation is much more of a colony killer than cold I thought?
A consistent cold winter means less movement / ball expansion, no unpredictable warm spells in Jan / Feb means no sudden higher energy requirement and/or volatility in the nest ball that might leave stragglers vulnerable when it cools again.

Thoughts?

P.S. interested to know what long / med term weather sources you are using, always been of the view that you need multiple opinions on forward weather but never gone to the trouble of assembling such a group of sources.

Getting back to condensation.
This is my first winter with 2 hives. I have heard some say they lift the roof slightly to reduce the condensation. Is this an idea? And others put a layer of insulation e.g. old carpet or polystyrene, on top of the crown board, under the roof. Should I do this? Thoughts please.

 

[drstitson]

KayJ

see previous threads -

many use a block of insulation on top of a solid crownboard - B&Q currently doing 1200x500x52.5mm sheets of spaceboard for £3.50ish.

leaving a matchstick sized gap under insulated crownboard actually produces quite a large area for chimneying of your nice warm air out of the hive. Whilst many swear by it I'm not going down that line.

 

[KayJ]

Thank you for that. I'm new to the forum and still finding my way around it. I've found your previous threads on condensation. Thanks for your help.

 

[RoseCottage]

All,
Thanks for your thoughts ... i will go into overdrive feeding mode tomorrow morning and give them as much ss they can handle.
Will check the brood situation too ...weather still good but is changing bit by bit.

Sam

 

[oliver90owner]

KayJ,

I've never done it myself, but a small gap(3-4mm) between solid floor and brood box may well be better than a lot of top ventilation.

When I started, my mentor was not perturbed at damp outer frames - he just said the bees would clean them up. I never managed to balance the ventilation satifactorily and so tried a mesh floor. Bingo. No top ventilation (solid insulation with expanded polystyrene sheet), so no chimney effect; dry store frames and happy, live bees. That was on a brood and a half. I now run all 14 x 12 framed hives in a similar fashion (no super).

Not prevented the odd dead-out, but I am happy and content with my method. If your preferred method works, stick with it with modification if necesssary. There will be lots of different ideas of how it should be done. Follow the ones with several years experience. I am intending to try a 14 x 12 polyhive next year and that will emulate my present method quite closely, but without the need for extra insulation.

Regards, RAB

 

[Skyhook]

KayJ,

I've never done it myself, but a small gap(3-4mm) between solid floor and brood box may well be better than a lot of top ventilation.

When I started, my mentor was not perturbed at damp outer frames - he just said the bees would clean them up. I never managed to balance the ventilation satifactorily and so tried a mesh floor. Bingo. No top ventilation (solid insulation with expanded polystyrene sheet), so no Regards, RAB

RAB, I've heard that when overwinting on a mesh floor you want something under it to prevent direct draughts, eg an empty super. Do you agree with this, and if so would it be a good idea to have an empty super under the BB if ventilating at the floor?

 

[drstitson]

bottom ventilation

i presume a thin slot below the brood isn't too much of a problem - little different to the entrance in fact - problem lies in sudden gusts swirling under and up through the convenient 400x400 orifice!!!!

green windbreak mesh around hive stands might be a suitable solution?

 

[oliver90owner]

Skyhook,

By all means, but beware wild comb if they get away early in Spring.

I remember doing that and regretted it as the first inspections were delayed by the weather but brooding was well under way and the colonies expanded into the super.

If doing it now I would simply put one below the mesh floor, but I don't have any problem on 14 x 12s. A standard brood (only) might benefit considerably more as the cluster must, even if it doesn't want to, be that much closer to the turbulence below the frames. Personally I think wind is fairly well attenuated by the mesh anyway but any protection from howling gales must be good, so it depends a lot on the topograhy of the site, clearance below the hive, etc.

Regards, RAB