What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pargyle]

Changed floor on one hive, took two full frames of stores and transferred to nut.
Moved the nuc into a polyhive and dummied down. Lifted several frames together so not to break them apart. Took fondant off them both as they both have more stores than needed now. The strong colony is still on 6 frames of stores with only small patches of brood. Put out three bait hives.

Not criticising what you have done but there's a couple of posts I've seen where people have, obviously, fed bees with fondant that didn't need feeding:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=396093#post396093 #9

Can't find the post but Jimmys Mum had the same problem I think ..

There were a few posts in threads around Christmas where some people were advocating feeding 'Fondant just in case' but is this something that we new beekeepers should be thinking more about before doing ? I had (and have) fondant ready and was very tempted to slap some on but my mentor said . No .. with the stores you left them and the mild weather they should be fine until April ... advice I took.

I fed mine well in September and they had a good ivy flow as well so went into winter with a good 10 frames or more of stores ... I've been hive weighing and although I've not opened them up yet but I've had the occasional peek through the clear crownboard and I don't think they need food at present, I can see capped stores at the top of the frames and some with honey in uncapped cells.

So ... what's the solution for a beginner (I recognise it's a bit late fot this year) ?

Feed and risk them having a lack of laying space at this time ?

Hold off feeding and risk starvation ?

Take the guesswork out and weigh at the start of winter and continue weighing into the spring and feed if necessary ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Those folk with excess stores might do with weighing their hives with a luggage scale,say, and noting the weight re the number of whole store frames that corresponds to. Then they will have a ready reckoner for next winter.

 

[pargyle]

Those folk with excess stores might do with weighing their hives with a luggage scale,say, and noting the weight re the number of whole store frames that corresponds to. Then they will have a ready reckoner for next winter.

Yes ... just come across the replies on another thread:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28209

Post #5 onwards

Good advice Erica

 

[richardbees]

Such a mild winter, all my three Nationals still have 5 frames of untouched sealed syrup.....I'm going to gradually replace with foundation as I don't have any empty drawn comb

 

[Chris Luck]

Such a mild winter, all my three Nationals still have 5 frames of untouched sealed syrup.....I'm going to gradually replace with foundation as I don't have any empty drawn comb

Logically bees consume more in a mild winter than a cold one due to being more active, mine certainly do.

Chris

 

[Roola]

Such a mild winter, all my three Nationals still have 5 frames of untouched sealed syrup.....I'm going to gradually replace with foundation as I don't have any empty drawn comb

i'm the same... contemplating whether to extract out some of the untouched stores frames to give space but that means getting the extractor out and all the cleaning lark... they won't draw out new foundation now will they?

 

[Roola]

Logically bees consume more in a mild winter than a cold one due to being more active, mine certainly do.

Chris

mine formed a small cluster and didnt really move much through winter.

 

[richardbees]

disagree Chris - i've only had one night of sub 0c this winter, fed exactly the same as previous years but have never had this much stores left over.
Maybe the exceptionally late ivy made a difference?

EDIT

Roola, mine never clustered! I've got a couple of glazed crown boards

 

[pargyle]

Logically bees consume more in a mild winter than a cold one due to being more active, mine certainly do.

Chris

Not according to DerekM and the laws of phyics !! Listened to him do his talk at the S E Hants Convention today and it seems to me that warmer bees don't have to work so hard to heat their environment so .... possibly not !

 

[Chris Luck]

I only fed 7 colonies going into winter, late queens or swarms.

I heft by hand, no scales and all the others went into winter at full weight as per usual. My bees have been out and about to some extent or another all winter and all hives were lighter a couple of weeks ago than normal for that date, it has been the mildest / warmest winter on record here, we have baby blackbirds, tawny owls and long tailed tits already.

Agree or disagree I only go by my own experience and observations.

Feeding wax capping this week.

[/URL][/IMG]

Chris

 

[richardbees]

Roola, sorry - didn't see this...
they won't draw out new foundation now will they?
Yes - they desperately need Q laying space.

I'll just cut the syrup comb out and bin it - clean the frames and replace with foundation.
r

 

[rosco]

I'll just cut the syrup comb out and bin it - clean the frames and replace with foundation.

I'm no expert but couldn't you just store the frames for use in a nuc or other manipulation later in the year?

 

[youngyoungs]

All out and about - lovely to see. Changed floors on the poly hives, and moved the wooden hives into newer wooden hives. All hives had BIAS and plenty of stores. The nuc is low on both so I swopped in a frame of stores from one of the other hives.

Thought I was doing really well, then got stung on the hand!

 

[yellowrage 53]

this is all well and good but if you end up with a hive at the end of oct u have to do what you hope is best [as it turn up with no where to go !!!]

 

[Greatbigchicken]

First inspection this year

As it was such a lovely day I changed the floor and had a look through my garden hive. I was really surprised at how many bees there were so early in the season and bias on 6 frames!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Roola, sorry - didn't see this...
they won't draw out new foundation now will they?
Yes - they desperately need Q laying space.

Sorry: yes they will draw?

 

[Pete D]

Not today but yesterday.
Very quick look in 15 colonies and overwintered nucs.
All with BIAS, average 3 frames, lowest 2 highest 4. Most had plenty of stores and pollen, couple of the poly nucs were light on stores so a small amount of fondant was added on top of the frames, about a kilo.
Pleased with the amount of bees in each and all seemed to be of very good temperment.
Not out of the woods yet but not looking to bad.

 

[itma]

...

Agree or disagree I only go by my own experience and observations.

Feeding wax capping this week.

[/URL][/IMG]

Chris

You aren't really open feeding, are you Chris?

 

[itma]

Roola, sorry - didn't see this...
they won't draw out new foundation now will they?
Yes - they desperately need Q laying space.

I'll just cut the syrup comb out and bin it - clean the frames and replace with foundation.
r

Extracting it (thereby preserving the comb) will help the bees get going quicker, when you return the empty combs.
Sure, they would draw fresh comb, but with not so many bees now, its much harder (and therefore slower) for them now than later in the season.

 

[MuswellMetro]

changing fondant on lighter colonies and the zip failled on my hood, and i got stung in the throat

looking to order a new suit tomorrow