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Author Topic: Winter Inspection  (Read 2039 times)

Offline bberry

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Winter Inspection
« on: September 19, 2007, 05:10:22 pm »
Well, i checked my hives yesterday and i have some questions about what i saw/did. This is my first year and i just love all the great advice you guys give 'cuz boy do i need it!
First let me quickly describe what i have: I have two hives going, both with two deeps and i added a med. super for any honey a step back when the girls were really jammin' and needed room (so i thought).
Now: Opened up the hives and the med. supers are empty-ziltch-nada. Small amount of bees milling about but no comb or anything. Now we have had the driest, hottest summer in years and so nectar was in short supply. Let me say that i did not expect honey this year but i did think that they would at least create an abundance for themselves to winter with based on what they were storing earlier in the summer. The top deep box had about four full frames of honey stored and then the center four frames were typical brood frames i.e. brood in center and pollen/honey on outer corners. The two outer-most frames were empty with no comb built but they have been this way for months. I then looked into the bottom deep and found that they have cleared it all out. The comb is empty with no eggs on eight frames and the center two had some unhatched brood in teh center.
What i did: Took the two frames of brood from bottom and placed in center of top deep after removing empty outer frames fro that box (moved frames in upper to place the brood frames close to center).
I removed the deep of empty combs and so now my one hive has the deep box with action in it and i left teh med. super on in case of fall flow as i am concerned with them having enough to winter over. I found basically the same situation in hive#2 but i decided to leave the two deeps intact on that hive to compare overwinter since this hive had more honey stores and in general is stronger (i did remove their honey super). Then i added back on my feeders and started feeding them again.
Sorry so long winded but i would love an opinion on weather this all sounds ok.
Do you think the hives have enough stores to last overwinter?
Is the moving upstairs' typical of winter readying or is there a problem?
What else should i be doing to make sure they are healthy?
AM I DOING ANYTHING RIGHT???

Offline TwT

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Re: Winter Inspection
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2007, 09:53:34 pm »
sounds like the year a lot of us had, with a hot dry summer all my hive have eat all that I left them in the spring, I have started feeding my hives because it has been so dry I am not expecting must of a fall flow if any so I plan on feeding them heavy for the next couple month's, sounds like yours are ok, you did good by making the hives smaller, it is typical to cut hives down in the fall, just feed them heavy syrup for awhile and inspect them every week or so and see how they are storing the feed, remember feed 2-1 syrup in the fall, they should do fine.... 
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Winter Inspection
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2007, 10:56:53 pm »
There is a dearth here.  I found many of the smaller hives with little or no stores and am feeding them all.  So far I've only had time to feed my home yard and I really need to feed them all.  This yard is going through 75 pounds of sugar a day...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline bassman1977

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Re: Winter Inspection
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2007, 11:15:03 am »
My hives have gone through about 25 lbs of sugar each over the past week and a half.  Hopefully they are about full.  I have to check this weekend. 
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Winter Inspection
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2007, 09:14:54 pm »
Mine are in a feeding frenzy right now. I don't dare open up a hive...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin