Author Topic: Ready for winter? (Read 6333 times)

MustbeeNuts · « **on:** September 27, 2009, 05:03:13 pm »

I checked all my hives today only a couple were iffy,, last week I combined two and today I combined one. All the others are looking full of honey and backfilling well. I am still feeding them and won't quit till it frosts or gets down to 48 degrees daytime temps. Almost a month before that. Pretty happy going to fall this year. Will wrap them in Nov. and sugar them up. Got my last super of honey today. light weight but I needed to push them down so off it came. All in all looks like a resonable year for me. Year three now on the horizion. Time flys when your having fun.

Al

hollybees · « **Reply #1 on:** September 27, 2009, 06:46:04 pm »

Checked my 3 have today. So far so good, their strong and they have good stores.
I have 1 nuc that I may have to put indoors they've been building up but are only covering half the frames.
May combine w/another hive or I've been thinking about setting an ob hive, I think I still have a little time to decide.
Will setup a wind break like last year using posts & shrink-wrap it worked well.

Am I Ready? Not really!...but it's defiantly time to gear up for it!
Paul

adgjoan · « **Reply #2 on:** September 27, 2009, 07:42:04 pm »

YOU'RE the one that used shrink wrap last year. I remember some one doing that when I was trying to think of what I could use for a wind break. Beekeepers are the most creative people.

hollybees · « **Reply #3 on:** September 27, 2009, 08:45:38 pm »

Yep it was me...
I'm going to do it a little different this time and make 3 separate sections leaving enough space between the posts to get the roll thru.
Also need something between the posts at the top, because the shrink wrap will pull in the posts as u go up.
Starting at the top helped.

It held up thru -10 F weather and wind gusts up to 50mph, also the colder it got the tighter it got.
The bees didn't have a problem with it they'd bounce of it but it didn't hurt'em.
It got a little gross from cleansing flights but the rain washed it right off.

hope your bees are well,
Paul

sarafina · « **Reply #4 on:** September 28, 2009, 06:00:35 pm »

I checked mine today and was surprised to find them pretty light in stores - lots of capped brood, though. I decided to start feeding and I have 2 frames of honey in my freezer I can put in my yellow hive next weekend to help out. I pulled them early this summer when the hive became so honey bound. We don't have much of a winter here so I can feed pretty much any time.

Finski · « **Reply #5 on:** September 29, 2009, 12:42:51 am »

.
Here in Finland the nature has turned quite yellow. Leaves drop soon.
I got my hives feeded. Shedule was too late but we had warm weathers.
20 kg sugar on average to the hives. 60% of hives winter with 2 boxes, full of bees.

MustbeeNuts · « **Reply #6 on:** September 29, 2009, 09:14:44 am »

Quote from: sarafina on September 28, 2009, 06:00:35 pm

We don't have much of a winter here so I can feed pretty much any time.

I am soooo jealous. wish we didn't have a winter. Guess thats what I get for living up in the great white north. LOL

MikeG · « **Reply #7 on:** September 29, 2009, 11:15:10 pm »

Mustbeenuts,

What is the purpose or need to "push them down". I have 3 mediums on top of a deep and have been wondering if I should take the top one off. I was able to harvest 2 mediums off of my first year hive. Since the robbing, I've fed them 25 lbs of sugar in 2:1 sugar water (they are like vacuum cleaners with that stuff). The 3 mediums are pretty much full, the top one of sugar water, the second one mostly honey but maybe 50/50, and the bottom one all honey.

Sparky · « **Reply #8 on:** September 30, 2009, 12:21:07 am »

My hives were a little small on weight and are going through a little over a gal. per day. Thirsty girls. I hope they never learn to open my beer refrigerator. :-D

ziffabeek · « **Reply #9 on:** September 30, 2009, 12:34:28 pm »

Can you feed too much? I've read that bees can get dysentery from feeding but I don't know if that's worse than starving. In warm climate like GA, when do you stop feeding for the winter? Or do you?

I thought my hive was doing pretty good, but I lifted it yesterday from the back with very little effort, so now i'm worried - again.

Finski · « **Reply #10 on:** September 30, 2009, 01:00:52 pm »

Quote from: MikeG on September 29, 2009, 11:15:10 pm

Mustbeenuts,

I have 3 mediums on top of a deep and have been wondering if I should take the top one off.

My experience is that one deep is enough to winter for that colony. Take all 3 mediums off.

thegolfpsycho · « **Reply #11 on:** September 30, 2009, 01:24:52 pm »

Finski you ornery devil! Good to see you back at the forum!

Highlandsfreedom · « **Reply #12 on:** September 30, 2009, 01:51:37 pm »

My 2 hives and a nuc in my back yard are FULL of uncapped honey all the cells are filled this was 2 weeks ago. I planted about 10 feet of Borage and WHOA!!!!!!! the girls have desamated that stuff and they are STILL going...... YOu can count at least 100 bees at any given time. I think thats where they are still getting alot of their nector because I have not sugar feed at all and they have both deeps full of honey. My nuc is full of honey too but I dont know how to winterize them any ideas would be great. They also like my nicotiana plants which I thougt were for the moths but the bees digg then too.

Finski · « **Reply #13 on:** September 30, 2009, 01:56:59 pm »

Quote from: Highlandsfreedom on September 30, 2009, 01:51:37 pm

My 2 hives and a nuc ...............

You have no idea what to do with honey?

Sparky · « **Reply #14 on:** September 30, 2009, 05:45:00 pm »

Highlandsfreedom. How much Borage did you plant to get a sudden burst of stores like that ? How do you use it yourself ?

ArmucheeBee · « **Reply #15 on:** September 30, 2009, 09:36:07 pm »

What the heck is Borage?

Sparky · « **Reply #16 on:** September 30, 2009, 09:53:52 pm »

Borage can be used as either a fresh vegetable or a dried herb. As a fresh vegetable, borage, with a cucumber like taste, is often used in salads or as a garnish. The flower, which contains the non-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloid thesinine, has a sweet honey-like taste and as one of the few truly blue-colored edible things, is often used to decorate dessert. It is notable that the leaves have been found to contain small amounts (10 ppm of dried herb) of the liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids:

Scadsobees · « **Reply #17 on:** October 01, 2009, 09:39:15 am »

Quote from: ArmucheeBee on September 30, 2009, 09:36:07 pm

What the heck is Borage?

When I was a teenage I thought that it was my parents. :roll: Now my kids think that's what I am....

Mason · « **Reply #18 on:** October 01, 2009, 11:39:34 am »

Very wet spring, new packages, new hives, new frames and late season floods equal no honey for me,

I have been shaking the bees off of my frames of empty supers and reducing down to the brood boxes. Very little honey stores so I am feeding. I still have some capped brood in my supers so I have only pulled the empty frames leaving the brood to hatch. To try and promote the queen, bees and honey storage down I flipped my lower brood box with my upper.

I put the built out empty frames in the freezer for a while and then double bagged them in plastic bags.

Hopefully I will survive my first winter and have a better honey year next season.

ArmucheeBee · « **Reply #19 on:** October 01, 2009, 12:16:00 pm »

Mason

I'm in the same boat as you just an hour north. I took off supers last weekend and put my nuc in two meds. yesterday. I can see my bee numbers going down since last last. I still have some brood and larva so there will be at least one more hatchoff. I am buying 25 lb. bags of sugar at Sams.