Planning ahead...winter feed, or not?

[oliver90owner]

My bees are in standard national deeps.

Do224,

The word ‘standard’ is only relevant when written with ‘British’ as a prefix. The British Standard National Hive format is what it means. Too many refer to the deep box as a standard. It is not. It is only one of three boxes which accept the british standard frame sizes - shallow, deep an extra-deep (the last often referred to as ‘jumbo’ or ‘14 x 12’.

Either people don’t understand the nomenclature or are taught by people who should know better!

 

[madasafish]

I run Langstroth jumbos (think 14x12 but wider) .
I aim a full hive without roof to weigh 30KGs up to 40Kgs for overwintering.
And 5 frames half that.
I nadir 1 x super when empty to reduce wind effects.
And will switch this year to fondant feeding prior to winter - to save my body from frequent visits.

Mini nucs overwinter are fed monthly with fondant on top bars . Outside wall feeders or hole in CB are too cold and bees do not go in them.

I have stocked up with lots of fondant as I anticipate pricing/availability issues may happen next year.(and I avoided postage with STB)

Everything is insulated (Of course)

 

[drdrday]

My hives are on double brood all year round, but I now use dummy boards made of insulation to give me the flexibility to give the bees more/less space at various points through the year. In my first year I kept them on two full brood boxes over winter but that was just a bit too much space for them, and I don't think one brood box would have been quite enough for me to feel confident over the amount of stores they had. This way I have more chance of getting it 'just right' for each colony.

In the autumn, once I've dummied them down (most likely to 8 over 8), I feed them syrup or 'bee honey'. I like to feed them not just for stores but also to get some thymol into them.

I think for beginners, talk about 'winter stores' can be misleading. It leads you to think that the depths of winter are the danger point for colonies. Most colonies will usually have enough stores in a single BB to get through winter, whether you've fed them or not. The point at which you really need to be careful is going into spring. I heft the hives every week if I can through February/March/April, and always have fondant on hand to pop on top if I'm concerned at all - don't usually need it.

Once spring truly arrives and I can safely get in the hives I can remove any excess frames of stores and/or take out dummies to give the queen more room to lay.
I don't really have freezer space for loads of frames of stores so I extract them and put the empty frames back in as more laying space. The 'honey' from these frames, which likely contains thymol, gets stored in a bucket just for the bees and gets used as feed ('bee honey') for them the following autumn.

Of course the hives have a slab of insulation permanently glued into the roof, and get a second slab under the roof over the winter. I like to think the Kingspan dummy boards over winter provide them with a bit more internal insulation at the sides of the brood box too.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I will take most of my colonies through winter on doubles. They are in wood but have top insulation. They start off towards the bottom and work their way up as winter goes by. They do not eat stores from top down. Not lost a colony over winter for some time ( one due to queen failure)

Do you bother to dummy down drex?

 

[drex]

Not usually. If the colony is on the small side they are united. It has been shown that stronger colonies have a better chance of winter survival. My colonies only occasionally need fondant when they start brood rearing in earnest in spring. I am not solely in this for the quantity of honey I get.
After all why do they collect such excessive amounts of honey anyway.?
Also lets not forget they also need pollen especially for young brood

 

[SumpNut]

I cannot answer your question directly because I do not use conventional hives, with deep brood boxes, QEs and shallow supers, so I have no experience.
However if you use one size of box throughout the hive, it is a piece of cake. The brood nest shrinks back down and frames are shifted into the lower (usually 2) boxes to make up whatever configuration you want, with enough stores to last the winter. Close the hive, go on a world cruise until spring.

Thanks for the reply, so the boxes and frames you remove are presumably from higher up in the hive and contain honey, so reducing the hive size goes hand in hand with honey extraction?

 

[gmonag]

Thanks for the reply, so the boxes and frames you remove are presumably from higher up in the hive and contain honey, so reducing the hive size goes hand in hand with honey extraction?

Yes. I take the surplus honey and leave ~20kg in each hive (there is usually about 10kg still in there in April, which I extract with the spring harvest).
Any brood gets moved down below the stores.

 

[Fiona in South View]

Errm - naturally the brood would be below the stores

Thank you for the correction! My brain was truly elsewhere as I know that and have been teaching it to beginners for years! Put it down to stress due to major heart surgery in a couple of week.

 

[enrico]

Thank you for the correction! My brain was truly elsewhere as I know that and have been teaching it to beginners for years! Put it down to stress due to major heart surgery in a couple of week.

Good luck. Hope it goes well