Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Finsky on January 13, 2007, 04:20:21 am
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Feeding methods rise upp feelings. Why? To ensure food stores for bees is very simple.
I wondered what makes basicly the need of midd winter feeding because in our long winter we need not it. Bees manage well 6 months and we do not even touch them. Why - because we have no choice. After 6 months it is better check the weight how much hive has stores.
If in our country hive continues brooding, it will be dead in December. Nothing, not even feeding can save it. Bee stock must be a such which stop brood feeding in the end of summer.
1) One reason for winter feeding may be if you want to winter hives with honey. They get enough honey or not. You have possibilyty to feed hive with sugar so that it is full and stores are capped.
2) If you live in climate where hives have brood almost all winter, it consumes quickly stores. No "once -feeding" is enough for hive.
3) You have mesh floor, not insulated walls and bees raise brood near freezing point. The consumption is huge compared with our wintering.
4) When bees are in winter cluster and out temperature is near freezing point, the consumption of food is about 2 lbs per month. No brood.
BIg hive consumes during rainy day about 1 lbs honey per day in summer. In two days one winter month dose.
It is same to me what is your opinion and what you write about feeding I continue my style. But problem is that USA is from Florida to Alaska and it seems that you try to use same systems: uninsulated hives, same bee stocks, .....
In Europe it means from North Africa to Polar Circle. In Europe we do not understand each other so much that we can deliver wrong information :)
That clarifyes me why it is so diifficult to get hives over winter even if you have not "winter".
And we still wonder when we have nice girls, where nasty women grow.
(http://www.villawolax.fi/images/avantoavantouinti.jpg)
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Mr Finsky,
You are absolutly right. Here is the problem for me. I live in Florida. That puts me below the line of North Africa. There is no real winter here. There may be a month with tempratures that are near 5C/41F and rarely do they drop below that for long. On rare occasions when there is a freeze/frost warning they usually do not last more than 48 hours.
The biggest problem for southern beekeepers like myself is we are taught beekeeping methods by northern beekeepers. Nice people but those rules do not apply here. We do not winter our bees.
There are blooms of some sort year round. While honey flows are smaller from late November to March they are still happening and dealing with a Febuary honey flow is not unusal here. I am pulling 10 Frames tomorrow. My bees still have 60 lbs of honey in the hive after I take my ten frames.
I use mesh bottoms here. The reason is that since I do not have a winter I have one hell of a summer. tempratures in July through September can easily be 95F/35C with 100% humidity. Air circulation on a hive is vital or you will cook your hive.
The nice girls grow up and become nasty wives.
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010020.jpg)
Sincerely,
Brendhan
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My bees don't look like that
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My mother was a Bee. Beulah Bee Best Bray, so she was a Bee however you want to look at it.
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WISH MINE LOOKED LIKE THAT :'( :'( :'( :'( :-X
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Beulah Bee Best Bray
Say that six times fast and get your face slapped
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But problem is that USA is from Florida to Alaska and it seems that you try to use same systems: uninsulated hives, same bee stocks, .....
Some of us are trying to look along lines of latitude rather than along lines of longitude to get advice, but it seems the information flows north and south much more readily than it flows east and west.
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One has to remember that because of differences in land mass, altitudes, placement and size of mountain ranges and valleys, ocean currents and so many other things, Just because someone is the same difference from the equator as another doesn't mean the climate is the same. Texas is not the Sahara desert, nor Miami Florida.
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Texas is not the Sahara desert,
Find seven differencies in pictures:
Texas
(http://www.texascamelcorps.com/monahans4.jpg)
Sahara
(http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/1ds-4/sahara-desert-sand-dune.jpg)
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That is not Texas, unless it is around Kermit Texas, then it is nothing like the Sahara. That would be the recreation area where people take their Dune Buggies and play. The rest of the area has a lot of vegetation everywhere.
And what about the rest of that?
http://www.texascamelcorps.com/cameltreks.asp
See the vegetation? I'll find some more pictures of Texas.
http://www.state.tx.us/images/home/capitol.jpg
http://images.fotosearch.com/bigcomps/UNU/UNU123/108-02566.jpg
http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/corbis/dgt275/FHA0072.jpg
Then a whole bunch here
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/texas.html
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Understudy, you need to have more than just one bee!
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4122/swarmkb8.gif)
As I show above, you need at least a queen and two attendants, and
one must assure that one's bees are well-supplied with carbohydrates
so that they will overwinter well. (This was last Halloween, and yes,
of course I wore a bee veil as a part of the gag.)
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I like the Pictures of the Beeeeees
kir-o
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Understudy, you need to have more than just one bee!
As I show above, you need at least a queen and two attendants, and
one must assure that one's bees are well-supplied with carbohydrates
so that they will overwinter well. (This was last Halloween, and yes,
of course I wore a bee veil as a part of the gag.)
Oh but I do. it's just my bees wear very skimpy attire and this is a (cough) family friendly(cough) forum.
Here are some wild bees from my hive. My aplogies there are some drones and spiders in the hive. can't do anything about that. But I keep the numbers to a minimum.
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010019.jpg)
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010022.jpg)
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010025.jpg)
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010194.jpg)
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010196.jpg)
(http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/albums/moonfest/normal_s2010197.jpg)
I would post more but the queen bee doesn't need the bandwidth hassles or the family friendly issues.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
PS. Wasn't this a discussion on winter feeding? Finsky brought up some good points.