Feeding a weak colony

[Flewster]

Ok I moved some hives back this weekend and one is extremely light with the bees up against the top cover already........I mixed up some 2:1 syrup and put in the top feeder.....should they be wrapped???

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You have to stop and smell the roses......but please watch out for my bees.

[Michael Bush]

I've never wrapped any. Many people do and report that side by side testing shows the wrapped ones do better.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I don't think it is necessary in our neck of the woods.

[MountainCamp]

Here, I wrap my hives for the winter. It is very windy and our temps get to -25F to -30F.
I have found that in the late fall / early winter and late winter / early spring, I am able to feed.
This year with high temp about 30F (from 19F)on a sunny day, 13 of 15 hives were using feeders. A few days later, high temp about 30F (from 24F), cloudy / snowing only 3 of 15 hives using feeders.
I use wrapping to extend the time I have to feed and as wind protection.

[clintonbemrose]

I put in the SBB sliders to keep snow from blowing inside from the bottom and duct tape all the cracks and holes except 1 that I leave as a top entrance. Every time I wraped hives on a sunny day you could see hundreds of frozen bees on the snow where they had frozen in mid flight becayse the hive seemed warm to them.
Clint


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Clinton Bemrose
just South of Lansing Michigan
Beekeeping sence 1964

[MountainCamp]

Clint - I have not seen this on any large scale. I have seen many bees in the snow in front of a hive, but they were dead bees being cleaned out of the hive on a good day.

The wrapping does not heat the outside air and if is too cold for bees to be flying, they get they information when they come to the entrances.

This is the same situation that happens with hives that are insulated. The insulation keeps some of the clusters generated heat with in the hive and there-by increases the internal temperature of the hive. But, this does not cause mass flying by the insulated hive.

I have seen bees, taking water from the snow on sunny days, and sometimes these bees don't make it back. But, that was the case before I wrapped as well.

There was at one time an article on this site of testing on winter clusters. They had done at the University Of Wisconsin - Madison a coparison between hives that were insulated, non-insulated, and temperature controlled. They found that the non-insulated hive's cluster moved toward the sunny sides of the hive, until the outside air temperature dropped below 25F. Below that the solar gain was less than the heat lost.

I found that the vast majority of my winter loses were from late season starvation. The clusters were anchored with some brood and could not expand / move to get at stores.
The wrapping helps to extend / increase the solar gain. This is where I have seen the greatest benifit from wrapping.

[This message has been edited by MountainCamp (edited November 29, 2004).]