All other yards had either 1 loss or no losses and these are yards of at least 20 colonies. Most colonies have SBB's.Are you saying your SBBs are open? Do you leave them open all winter?
Are you saying your SBBs are open? Do you leave them open all winter?
I have mixed emotions on wrapping hives.
I think tomorrow i will wrap the hives with insulation bats for the weekend till the intense cold snap is over
You don't need to wake them up or open the hive. Just lift the back of it and see how heavy it is...And............if its light..............and we shouldn't open because its too cold.............???????
Ok just checking because you said that you did on your other post before this one about losing your hives
I checked out my bees the other day and they looked and sounded OK. I screwed some of the 2 inch insulation board on 3 sides. I hope they are as sung as a bug in a rug this weekend, I just heard on the local news that the wind chill will be down to minus 40 FYeah cold temps PLUS wind stink. Hard for anything not living below ground to stay warm. By averages though, this has been a mild winter for us, so far. During a normal winter in N/W Wisconsin there is usually one (or two) two week periods of minus 20-25 (-31C) nights and days "staying" well below zero, that's not including wind chill). Today its still a couple degrees below zero, but we'll get above it in a bit, and its still too cold to check on bees "inside." With February fast aproaching we may get through winter with some firewood and propane to spare for next season :) But I'm not so sure about my bees. We've had very strange weather lately, especially the last season.
For any of you babies down south you can not believe what minus 40 F feels like. The worst I went through when I was younger was minus 75 F wind chill you could not even walk across the street.
Finski, I don
Someone should invent a way to feed bees without opening up their house :)
thomas
bees need not feeding in winter when you feed hives full in autumn.
T Beek,Thanks Trot, I'd foloow your suggestion, but 6 above zero is just plain to cold to open them up right now, next week back up into the 20's, maybe then, but I don't like going inside unless its at least 35, sunny and NO WIND. Thanks again.
make a candy board, lift the inner cover off and put candy board right over the top brood chamber. Make sure that the candy board box/frame has in the bottom - front side cut out a notch for ventilation and a way out for bees when they want to go for a dump in warmer weather...
Good luck,
Regards,
Trot
Bees burn the least amount of stores at 42 degrees f. Wrap to keep drafts off not heat up the hive. Need a top and a bottom hole to allow moisture out. Second windbreak also helps.
I think tomorrow i will wrap the hives with insulation bats for the weekend till the intense cold snap is over
I think you need more hives :-D
@T Beek and Trot
You guys seriously have to start selling queens. Any bees that can survive your conditions with minimal intervention are worth their weight in gold!
T Beek, I read your every word!
very cold out the bees cant break cluster and move any distance to go and get the stores elsewhere inside the hive, with that said giving them fondant on top of the cluster allows them to feed themselves until it warms
BlueBee :?Actually, artificial heat fools bees into thinking its warmer than it really is, causing them to venture out on days they normally wouldn't, along with many other potential issues.Case in point, I have my hives stored in my cattle trailor with a light canvas cover. Outside temp today was mid 20's and there were a few bees in the snow outside the trailor. Undertakers were also working.
thomas
Bees aren't dumb or stupid, only people can hold that title
QuoteBees aren't dumb or stupid, only people can hold that title
Starving to death when there is food just a few inches away doesn't sound to bright in my book.
Who is to say that we are not screwing up their plan or their survival instincts by digging into the hive or feeding when they already have food.
Anybody feed birds?
Finski; you are da MAN!!
thomas
But.....I'm always listening to my bees as you can see if you look close at my post picture, and they speak volumes.
thomas
without the bees we would all be bored and have alot less food to eat :)
I should add here that bees had been around for 150 million years!
(Latest research involving the last bee found, perfectly preserved in amber and if memory serves me right? It was found in California.)
Previous proven estimate was about 120 milion years.
That is longer than any creature known to inhabit this globe.
Regards,
Trot
I do believe the comparisons were between humans and bees Finski, not any "other" animals, your age is showing Old man :-DDoes it helps if I am again 15 years. The comparision would not be better.
thomas
I do believe the comparisons were between humans and bees Finski, not any "other" animals, your age is showing Old man :-D
thomas
I do believe the comparisons were between humans and bees Finski, not any "other" animals, your age is showing Old man :-DDoes it helps if I am again 15 years. The comparision would not be better.
thomas
Bees have not computers....reason is my age....
You must have short of jokes. I tell one because a human is clever
- How do you get rif off dog poo on your lawn?
- make a fatty bouillon and pour it on the poo. Next dog comes and eates it.
Honeybees wouldn't be living in either of our parts of the world, if WE didn't bring them here to begin with.
It appears that even those that have kept bees for 50 years have colony failures.
I would like to know more on the subject that bees store food in their hive and then come winter they forgot where they put it. How would you prove such a thing?
I have lost many hives this way. The cluster starts to winter in upper box. They move up and die when food is finish. They do not know that in the first box they have 20 kg food.
Shouldn't the food be in the upper box not the lower box? Why did you (they) have 20kg of food in the lower box? Is it something you did previously that changed their normal habits?
I would like to know more on the subject that bees store food in their hive and then come winter they forgot where they put it. How would you prove such a thing?
"the only experts are the bees." If you aren't listening, you aren't learning.
thomas
or....you might take the word of those with many years of experience until you have enough of your own.
The Russian bees do so well with mites because in Russia they didnt have the money or means to give treatments and the strong colonies learned to manage the mites and the weak died. Now the Russian bees are very resistent to mites because of this if we were smart we would let our bees do the same
It is not common that cluster eates first food from upper box.If it is not common than why would you want to save this hive and propagate its genetics? It makes more sense to me to propagate the colonies that do well through the winter for what ever reason. Once they figure it out, I don’t have to.
If it is not common than why would you want to save this hive and propagate its genetics? It makes more sense to me to propagate the colonies that do well through the winter for what ever reason. Once they figure it out, I don’t have to.
I could care less if the person has two years experience or leaned it on their own or from someone that had 50 years experience.
The Russian bees do so well with mites because in Russia they didnt have the money or means to give treatments and the strong colonies learned to manage the mites and the weak died. Now the Russian bees are very resistent to mites because of this if we were smart we would let our bees do the same
It is not common that cluster eates first food from upper box.
If it is not common than why would you want to save this hive and propagate its genetics?
you will fail from time to time. that's also normal.
there is no way to learn, except to do and observe. it's another one of those things that can't be handed to you.
they eat their way UP over the course of the winter and end up in the top box or top of the box if you only use one.
if your honey is in the bottom because you have done some thing like swapping boxes, the bees will still move up, and they will move away from their food.
If this were true this forum would be worthless and any book ever written about bees would be worthless. There are many ways to learn, observation being only one of the ways..
Finski, why did the U.S. bring bees over from Russia to Baton Rouge Lousiana to the island and isolate the bees and propagate the genetics of the russian be known as the Russian Queen Breading Association run by the U.S. food and drug administration and they have scientific proof that the russian bee is very hygenic and is the most resistant to varroa mites. I dont say things on here that i havent learned from an educated individual or scientific proof i am by no means a know it all at this far into beekeeping but i do read alot and listen to people such as yourself that have years of experience thats how you better yourself in life no matter what you do you always listen more than you talk thats what i was taught by my parents. :-D
@BY_warrior and Finski
I recall in another post that Finski said he recently retired. This would be a PERFECT project to keep him busy in retirement.
Having "nothing" to do is a luxury best left to the wealthy (for now anyway). I'd rather be poor with lots to do, guess that's why I am ;)
thomas
They're all still humming as of 8:30am.
thomas
get a grip man, I use a stethascope, they don't even know I'm there. :-D
thomas
get a grip man, I use a stethascope, they don't even know I'm there. :-D
thomas
I don't wrap my hives any more. Feel it caused to many moisture problems. I use SBB and top entrances, only one Hive w/ SBB is now wide open. I do place 2 inch rigid insulation on tops of all my hives. I've lost two small colonies (caught swarms) so far this winter and take responsibility for failing to dump or combine them. They were too weak, lesson learned.
I agree with Be a Bee, this hasn't been a very cold winter for us northern beeks "yet." Our regional weather issues affecting bees began with a very warm November, causing bees to feed on stores they should be eating right now. I did feed all of my hives dry sugar before closing them up. Waiting now for a day above freezing to check and feed, it may be awhile I'm afraid.
thomas
Although I'm not interested in selling bees or queens I would like to get a trade network of Northrn Beeks going in order to trade bees and queens, just a pipe dream I've had for some time now.
Thunder Bay would be a nice location for such an event. I'm all ears.
thomas
Id really like to see the northern beeks start up a northern breed program where we all could have a huge picnic up north and have one of our prize hives with our own northern breed queens with us to compete every year.
I'm uncertain of the structure of that Org.