volume v/s food

[Janice Lane]

When overwintering hives is it better to give them an extra supper of honey...just in case, or leave it off so they have less volume to keep heated?

[Joel]

Welcome to Beesource Janice!

We winter in SC in Singles. You will have no time of the season when the cold will be difficult for even small clusters to get through. The main goal in your area will be to have plenty of stores and Room to get the bees through winter and provide for the fast buildup going on now through the end of March when your main Honey Flow kicks up.

[Ben Brewcat]

As I understand it the cluster does not heat the whole hive interior (except incidentally), more the space the cluster occupies. Absent serious drafts and moisture collecting, hive space per se isn't a problem.

[sqkcrk]

The bees don't heat their hive like we heat our house. It's more like if you turned off your furnace every night, after a while all of the people and cats and dogs would be sleeping in the same bed to keep each other warm. That's what the bees do, they keep each other warm.

Some South Carolina beekeeper will be along soon to tell you what you should do. But until then, if your bees start the winter in two deeps, with the upper deep full of honey, come spring you will have a good colony of bees that you'd better be on top of. By March 15th or 20th, where you are, they could be swarming. So be prepared.

[Michael Bush]

I try to find a happy medium. Space does cost heat. Not because they are trying to heat it but just because you lose heat to it. Try being in a small tent and a large tent in the winter and you'll see what I mean.

It's better to have more honey than they need for stores than not enough, but there's no reason for way too much room.

But if I lived in a warmer climate I might think it was less important to try to have the approriate amount of room.

[Joel]

{Some South Carolina beekeeper}

Wait, won't that be you in 2 weeks? :cool:

[sqkcrk]

Well Joel, when I'm in SC I am seen as a Northern beekeeper. But since my bees spend their winter near Myrtle Beach, maybe they are southern bees who spend their summers in the north. Snow bees some people call them.

Southward bound soon, not soon enough.

[ February 11, 2006, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: sqkcrk ]

[FordGuy]

Mark, if you had been in SC today, you'd wish you'd just stayed in New York, or maybe the Arctic...it was MISERY. Around 40 degrees, rainy, blah. I was chilled to the bone. And muddy....oh, Lordy. My bees were even lethargic.

[sqkcrk]

What no laying on the beach of Myrtles and oogling the bikini clad nymphs from northern colleges? No surfing? No sun tans and dry rounds of golf? I can't believe it. It's almost like, "I want my money back."

Yes FG, I know what you mean. A wet and nasty 40 degrees above zero F can be just as uncomfortable as zero here in NY. Most people who haven't experienced it don't understand, but it is true. I'm often impressed when I get up in the morning in SC, in March and call home to find that the tempersture is almost the same.

The Eden that SC can be isn't always. On average though, it is an easier winter on the bees. For me anyway.

[Janice Lane]

Thanks for the info. The weather hasn't been great lately. A couple of weeks ago I thought we'd have an early spring...it got up to 70F. But it's supposed to be in the 40's all week now. I'm hoping it will warm up and things will start blooming in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to dig into the hives and see how many brood the queen is laying!
-Janice

[WG Bee Farm]

The Eden that SC can be isn't always. Mark,
I live in Eden. smile.gif It is not always perfect either.

Frank Wyatt
Eden, NC

[sqkcrk]

Chuckle.

That must be near Marble and Andrews, NC, 'cause that's where I found Eden in NC. Well, actually, since I met my wife at Brasstown, maybe that was Eden.

Where is your Eden, NC? And please, don't say west of ASheville. There is a whole state west of Asheville, right? Know what I mean?

[WG Bee Farm]

Eden, NC
North of Greensboro, NC (220N) but just on the NC/Va line south of Martinsville, Va. & west of Danville, Va. As the crow flies I can be in VA in 3 minutes, by truck it will take me 10.
Makes it convenient to placing hives for Sourwood Honey in Patrick and Franklin Counties, Va.
Frank Wyatt
WG Bee Farm
740 S. Fieldcrest Rd.
Eden, NC 27288
336-635-5821

[sqkcrk]

Sourwood? Real Sourwood? I bought some honey at a roadside stand at Galivant's Ferry, SC, that was labeled Sourwood from KY. It tastes just like clover to my friends. I bought it because another friend wanted some real sourwood honey and had only been able to find honey that was labeled sourwood. Where is the quality assurance in our industry. I don't remember sourwood tasting like clover. Does it? Maybe I'll stop in and see you if I go North after seeing my In Laws at Hendersonville and my cousin in law in Hickory.

[GeeBeeNC]

And when the sourwood flow ends the Edenite bees draw from the sour mash pile at the Miller plant, yes?

[Michael Bush]

>I don't remember sourwood tasting like clover. Does it?

Sourwood is quite distinctive and in no way resembles clover. Eucalyptus is more reminicent of it than clover, but it's not the same either. Sourwood has a nice tawng to it. I think it's my favorite. smile.gif

[WG Bee Farm]

Micheals-got it down, without that twang it ain't Sourwood.

GeeBeeNC- I knew a hobbiest that had two hives across the street from the Miller Brewry, and his "honey" was always super clear.(HFCS spills off of the railcars unloading.)

sqkcrk-I have 6ea. 1# containers of Sourwood left off of 2 drums,come by and your welcome to one if there is any left by then. I always sell out and have just found these mixed in a box of Wildflower.