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Author Topic: Enough food for winter????  (Read 3873 times)

Offline Hincey00

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Enough food for winter????
« on: April 03, 2015, 04:19:02 am »
Hello fellow bee lovers!
I am facing my first winter as a beekeeper and want to be sure my little lovelies have enough stores to get through.
My super ( 2nd box on top of the brood box) has 8 racks, of those 8 racks the two outer racks are purely foundation wax, next rack in has one side foundation wax, other side 1/4 nectar. The 4 Middle racks are full of capped honey. The brood box has some honey, plenty of pollen and brood.
Should this be enough for them? I'm at Phillip Island in Gippsland.
Thanks friends!
Liz

Offline mikecva

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2015, 12:04:33 pm »
Welcome to the forum.  :smile:
You might consider adding your town and province to your  profile so we can help you better.
What are your temps. at now and what is the average weather in your area? -Mike
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Listen to others but make your own decisions. That way you own the results.
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Please remember to read labels.

Offline OldMech

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2015, 03:15:22 pm »
wow! Had to look that up on Google Earth.. Thats the land down under and Phillip Island is down under the land down under!

    I like 100 lbs of honey for an average year here at the 41st parallel in the US..   Knopt knowing your weather patterns it will be hard to advise..
   In relation;  we have 4 months of 0 or below (F) with wind chill up to 55 below at times, and once in a while we will get a warm day thats 30 degrees (F) T shirt weather after dealing with the wind chill...   On a BAD winter I like 120 lbs of honey, and in some mild winters I get by with 50 ish pounds of honey..     Friends further south report that they insure they have 60 lbs of honey for the winter..  They have about two months of winter that gets down to 32 degrees, sometimes for up to two weeks...
   Talk to anyone local with bees and find out what they do is the best advice, and then overdo it a little, as far as how much honey you leave on, or how much syrup you feed.
39 Hives and growing.  Havent found the end of the comfort zone yet.

Offline prestonpaul

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2015, 07:41:09 am »
Hi Liz.
I'm in south west Victoria about 20km inland from the 12 Apostles so possibly  similar climate.
I like to have a full 8 frames of food for the bees if possible going in to winter. It's not just about getting them through winter, which 4 full frames may do, it's about having a strong hive come spring so they can bring in lots of nectar once the spring flow starts.
If I were in your shoes I'd be starting to feed 2:1 syrup soon to give your bees the best chance.

Offline Hincey00

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2015, 09:03:48 pm »
 :embarassed:
Oh thanks everyone - I thought I was posting on an Au only area of the forum.
As OldMech found out ( the hard way) our hives are at Phillip Island on the south coast of Victoria in Australia. We are close to the beach and average temps of 9c May, June and July around 7c and then warming back up to around 8c.
At the moment it's still quite warm with gems from 18-23c and the hive is busy. I have noticed quite a lot of nectar in the super and a lot of pollen going in - it's a strong hive.
We can get wind and quite a bit of rain as we are near the coast but the one hive we have is quite sheltered.
Thanks too prestonpaul- I've been looking into the syrup feeding - God Google can be confusing! There are so many variables and that's what confuses me. What's this I read about the sugar syrup 'ripening' properly? How long should we feed them for? The hive is at our holiday home so we are only here on weekends.
Sorry to be a pain and ask so many questions, I just love my bees and want to be sure they are as happy and healthy as they can be.
Thanks so much for your support guys xxxxx

Offline prestonpaul

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2015, 06:06:15 pm »
Don't worry Liz, you did post in the Aus forum, it's just that some members click the "unread posts" to see what's new button which gives them all new posts regardless of what forum they're in.
The ripening they talk about for the syrup is the same as nectar, the bees need to evaporate enough water from it to stop it fermenting. I don't think it's as big an issue here as it is in colder climates.
Feed them for as long as it takes to fill at least 6 full frames, preferably 7 or 8. If you can give them a couple of liters of syrup every weekend until it gets too cold to open them you should be OK. You will need a frame feeder or hive top feeder, an entrance feeder won't cut it as they don't hold much.
It just depends on what is flowering around you at the moment and when your spring nectar flow come in, which you would really need to talk to someone local about.
We only have one major flow for the year and it starts to come in late in the year so I have to make sure the bees have enough to last until then as prior to that it can be too cold and wet to get in to the bees so it really is dependent on your location.

Offline Hincey00

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2015, 08:25:24 pm »
Oh thanks SO much mate - thats exactly the info I need; clear and concise!
I appreciate your time my friend.
 :happy:

Offline prestonpaul

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2015, 09:30:28 pm »
No problem :)

Offline Wombat2

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2015, 02:29:20 am »
Add a winter mat on top of the brood box ( under the excluder if you have one) a piece of vinyl cut to leave a bee space all round the outer edge at least - I have it ending on the second frame in from the sides and about 1cm inside the line of the uprights at the ends. This will keep the heat in the brood and the queen will start full blown laying as soon as the weather starts to warm up and you will be collecting honey earlier than otherwise.

Also build your hives up to three high then through winter leave them with 9 full frames and rob the rest leaving empty frames in the middle super. 9 frames will be ample feed for the winter as a hive could live on that for twelve months without any nectar coming in.
David L

Offline Hincey00

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2015, 02:37:26 am »
Thanks so much!
I have the mat so they should be toasty and they are feeding well on the syrup.
Thanks again.
:)

Offline Chiefman

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Re: Enough food for winter????
« Reply #10 on: May 19, 2015, 06:47:47 am »
If I were in your shoes I'd be starting to feed 2:1 syrup soon to give your bees the best chance.

Im in Sydney. It does not get below 12c here at night. Is there any harm in feeding 1:1 syrup?. I have a small batch ready to go
-= The Urban Beekeeper =-