Hive 01 Oct. 2015

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pollen-carrying bees

Go girls!

Frustration here–weather has kept me from opening the hive to see what’s happening in the upper medium box that I put on a few weeks ago.  Normally, I’d have done a routine inspection last weekend but opening hive in the rain is definitely a no-no–truly ticks off the girls.  Again today, too windy and chilly.  Given our weather forecast looks like I won’t be opening the hive until sometime next week. I’ll be out there checking on the first sunny day. My curiosity must wait a bit longer.

Switching to winter feeding with 2:1 sugar to water ratio. Looking ahead to colder weather getting some fondant to provide some food if needed in the colder weather, and adding a bit of insulation and moisture protection to the hive. Time to place a mouse guard, too.

I’ve done an assessment for Varroa destructor (mites) about 2 weeks ago with a stickyboard. There didn’t seem to be many mites. I’ll repeat that in the next few days to be sure that I don’t need to treat before winter.

5 thoughts on “Hive 01 Oct. 2015”

    • Thanks for the encouragement!

      Unfortunately I didn’t get to take a hands-on class before I got my bees. I was wait-listed but the bees were already ordered. I guess I’m a little nervous because I started this nuc late–and it’s been dry here in NC so not the best fall nectar flow. Probably a bit of newbee nervousness and overriding curiosity. And concern about them having enough honey for the winter. Now we’ve had 9 straight days of rain–with probably three more yet so there’s not been much foraging going on.

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      • Just keep on feeding them until they stop taking the sugar syrup. Then leave a little fondant wrapped in clingfilm on top of the frames during winter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEWX0EVahCw I am not entirely convinced you need a block of icing sugar/fondant as big as that (but it will cut down on the amount of time you will need to open in the cold), but see what your grocery store carries. The really crucial time will be when the weather starts to get warmer (here around March). The bee population will double in size, so rapidly that they may starve. So basically you will need to feed them through winter into spring. Hope that helps.

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      • Again, thank you! I’ve switched to 2:1 syrup. My bee supply store sells fondant so I’ve gotten it from there. I thought about making it myself, but it not that expensive and so much easier. At least from them I’m sure that it’s suitable for the girls. Temperatures are so up-and-down here in the winter that I thought it would be better to have too much fondant than not enough.

        Just out of curiosity how do you treat for varroa?

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