Weather has been nice - should I be doing something

[tommys0112]

This is my first winter with my two hives. Here in Colorado we've had some pretty nice weather, days up to 60+ and nights down to 30. The last real sunny warm day both of my hives had a great amount of activity. Bees flying in and out in great numbers.

My question is - Is there something I can do to assist them during this time of year when the weather has nice spells, but still a bit chilly at night? Also note that it is not uncommon to have March blizzards still, it just seems unusually warm for February.

Should I be starting them up on sugar water?

Thank you very much - I really love this forum!

Tom Swafford

[mike haney]

the most important thing is make sure they have stores- by hefting,weighing, or inspecting. now is when they starve. all those flying bees come home hungry and empty handed. good luck,mike

[USCBeeMan]

I have one frame of permacomb that wasn't in a hive. Off an on during the Dec and early Jan I would fill the cells with SW and then leave it out for them on those warm days when they were flying.

They would take the SW out of both sides of the permacomb. Figured it was like them foraging and their trips weren't wasted.

One of the times I had a old bottle of crystilized honey that I heated up and then drizzeled into the permacomb cells. They liked it too!

Put a 1/2 gallon jar of SW with HBH at the entrance of my biggest hive last Sunday. It sit there for a couple of days. Now they are starting to really suck it up. Not like in the summer but you can tell every day that there is less in the jar.

Since I have MegaBee patties on all of my hives I need to start feeding all of them SW with HBH. Was waiting on some more entrance feeders to come in but I might have to go ahead and put on top feeders.

[Axtmann]

The only thing you should do this time of the year, make sure your bees have enough food.
If you can lift the hive with 2 fingers they need lots of food, if you can’t lift the hive with 4 fingers they are OK.

[tommys0112]

Great tips - thanks to you all!

[GRIMBEE]

I still haven't opened my hives yet since fall, but I know their doing well and have plenty of stores. A stethascope sp, and screened bottoms helps me to figure out whats going on.

[naturebee]

Tom,

IMO, feeding syrup is of little value in late winter because if the cluster is not near to the feeder they cannot access it, plus the danger of leakage and added moisture could be catastrophic at this time of year in cold climates.

A visual check is recommended over heaving hives if possible in ‘late winter’ because,
-although 'heaving a hive' to check weight does reveal how much honey is left, it cannot reveal where that honey is positioned in relation to the cluster.

What I do when temps are warm is to open the hive and move honey stores that may be out on a distant frame OR collected from a dead out up against the cluster so that they can access it immediately. Sometimes I will brush the bees off the frame that is on the edge of the cluster (providing it void of stores and brood), and replace it with capped stores for better contact with the main portion of the cluster, and continue adding stores outwards from that frame.

One of the most common reasons for clusters starving in late winter is due to ’isolation starvation’. This is where the cluster moves from the center across frames on one side, which causes an isolation from stores which may be plentiful on the frames towards the other side. So a visual check is recomended in late winter.

If you are wintering singles, nucs or have a cluster that is very small, isolation starvation commonly appears a bit differently. In these colonies that have small clusters, they tend to want to hug the south side of the hivebody to take advantage of the solar radiation. This can cause an isolation starvation by parallel movement on frames towards to south side, while stores are left on the opposite end of the frames often remain unused. In this case, a late winter visit might require one to flip the frames to place stores on the south side with the cluster where the bees want to be, and empty comb placed to the north.

In doing post mortems of dead outs:
And if the hives are facing south,,,

1. A cluster with isolation starvation found dead towards south side of the hive with stores located on the other ends of the frames, would suggests to me a weak colony going into winter, needing to hug the south side for the radiated heat.

2. A cluster found dead and not hugging the front, generally indicates the colony was at sufficient strength going into the winter.

Joe
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/