Winter Feed

[froggy]

Hi, as a beginner , which is the best winter feed to use ? it"s a bit confusing . solid, liquid ,or even, maybe make your own ? cheers Terry.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

in the autumn the usual practice (ie most beeks who feed do it) is to give them a few gallons of either 2;1 sugar syrup or invert 'ready mix' syrup, all just a matter of personal preference and/or convenience. The feeding of baker's fondant (don't be gulled into spending more money on 'specialist' bee fondant or ones that claim to be invertednor fondant with additives - the bog standard baker's fondat is more than adequate) is usually reserved for topping up of the hives who need it in late winter. It is a good idea to dose your syrup (whichever one you use) with hivemaker's thymol emulsion as it helps combat nosema (and is cheaper than buying the off the shelf varieties who also clim to have magical properties)

 

[froggy]

many thanks

 

[B+.]

alternatively:

Instead of using medicines for treatment of Nosemosis, beekeepers should to maintain their colonies in good health apply good husbandry practices; such as maintaining strong, well fed and disease tolerant colonies, headed by young and prolific queens. Bee keepers should also consider re-queening susceptible colonies with queens from more tolerant stocks of bees better able to cope with Nosema infection.

http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=191

 

[Eyeman]

Nosema- get rid of those old brood frames. I'm guilty of not changing my brood frames often enough.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

Would a shook swarm every spring help instead of changing 2 or 3 frames per season .

 

[mbc]

Nosema- get rid of those old brood frames.

I don't believe changing combs makes all that much difference to nosema levels.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Would a shook swarm every spring help instead of changing 2 or 3 frames per season .

Shook swarms are a good way of reducing the mite population because, as well as getting the colony onto new comb, it gives a brood break.

Some beekeepers in my area use a shook swarm as their first swarm prevention measure, doing it as soon as they see the first signs of swarm cells.

I've never previously heard that fresh comb can reduce the impact of N. apis, but a infected colony that has dirtied the inside of the hive will need to go into a clean brood box and onto clean comb - usually done more gently, by a Bailey Comb Change, because a shook swarm could be the tipping point that kills the colony. There are some recommendations that a thymololised syrup feed is helpful at that time, but have never tried it because I've never yet had a colony badly affected by N. apis.

 

[GlenJ]

Hi, as a beginner , which is the best winter feed to use ? it"s a bit confusing . solid, liquid ,or even, maybe make your own ? cheers Terry.

It's worse than that, first you have to work out if you need to feed. Loads of posts on here about "hefting" hives to get an idea of how much they have in the way of stores for the winter.

 

[Obee1]

Further to my post in the general section it seems best advice is count the number of brood frames at the moment. They will need that number of food frames for winter. Reduce the hive to the appropriate size then feed 2 pounds of sugar to,one pint of water syrup - feed till they take no more.
My buckfast hive is on 10 frames of brood. It will need a double brood box for wintering. I will be removing the last 2 supers this weekend leaving double brood and then feed - and treat. Feeding will stimulate the queen to lay lots of winter bees - so you need to get your varroa treatment done now too so you have healthy winter bees.
Ahh seems ITTLD has added an interesting comment. Worth reading the thread. Will link to it for those Beeks finding this thread in the future and wanting to read both threads
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35143