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Feeding Indoor Hives

16K views 63 replies 16 participants last post by  BMAC 
#1 ·
For you beekeepers who keep bees inside, what do you use to feed your nucs this time of year.
I am thinking my nucs went in light this year. I hefted a few that were on top of the stack, and they seem light to me. Im thinking of feeding them starting March.
I have seen those white entrance feeders to screw a bottle on to, but they are charging 50 cent for them!

Ideas ?
 
#4 ·
We keep the shed at 5 degrees C. We can see the cluster from the entrance.

BMAC, I keep my hives in a 30*40 insulated Quonset shed. This year I packed 1050 hive inside which includes 200 of my nucs. Its tight!
The secret is to keep the shed dark and keep the air moving inside. I have thermostats which relay to exhausting fans to help keep my temperatures down.

If your interested , I took a quick video a couple of months back,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a0_JjRSOnU
I have the shed rigged up with red lights so I can work inside without having the shed come alive !
 
#6 ·
I have my ventilation fan set on a minimum to take care of the moisture and CO2 concerns.
We had a month of -30 lately, and during that time my fans were at the minimum, but the hives kept the shed above 0 degrees C at all times. During the day, the temp held at 4 degrees without any supplemental heating.

Indoor wintering has its problems, but I will tell you, it felt good knowing my hives were sitting inside a nice warm shed as the wind howled for weeks riding a -45 degree windchill !
 
#13 ·
Ian I feed my nucs either fondant or similar type of sugar/food patties in the winter. Stay away from syrup now it = danger in the winter/early spring before it starts to warm up.

What do you use to control the nosema?

I have been trying different essential oils and some thymol in my patties but just have started so I don't know the results yet. Seems like I get hammered with nosema/dysentery type conditions later in the winter b/c we have such a wet damp rainy/snowy winter with variable temps all over the place= Lots of moisture!
 
#14 ·
A lot of guys used to feed during winter with entrance feeders (boardmans) and jar after the border closed and they had to start wintering bees. If I recall correctly, they raised the wintering room temperature to about 7C.

A couple of years ago some of the beekeepers around here were a bit light around this time of the year as well. So of their bees were staved at that point. They used plastic 1 litre honey containers, punched several holes into one side near the top rim, filled the container with 2:1 syrup, put on the lid and flipped the container upside down and placed it on the entrance lid with the holes facing the entrance. The container was supported on so type of wire support. I'll try to get some more information about the wire support for you if you would like - may take several days.

Saved the bees nicely. They thought the bees came out of winter having more brood that normal and the hives actually had a head start.
 
#16 ·
Mtn. Bee, you have to realize the hives are stacked 5 pallets high. My only access to the bee cluster is through the entrance.

The idea that winter feeding is harmful is very exaggerated. The main concern is increased moisture perspiration within the hive, causing condensation. If the hive has the ability to expel that moisture, they should be fine.
Within the wintering shed I can manage moisture expulsion very well during the winter months.

I monitor my hives closely for nosema, and when I find levels that reach our threshold levels, I will use Fumagillin .

ya, it seems that nosema is associated with foul weather.
 
#20 ·
Mtn. Bee, you have to realize the hives are stacked 5 pallets high. My only access to the bee cluster is through the entrance.
I was thinking about my top entrances that I use on my migratory covers which have a rim with a cut out (exactly like a bottom entrance on a 4-way pallet but on the top cover instead). All I have to do is walk from pallet to pallet and slide patties thru the top entrances and they sit on top of the frames right next to the cluster even with my pallets stacked up. The bottom of my 4-way pallets have a rim that goes completely around so they are shut tight, but I do drill a 1-1/4" screened over hole thru the plywood for drainage and air flow.
I guess I am just a backwards beekeeper! ;) ;)
Good Luck with those nucs hope 100% make it thru for you! Mtn Bee
 
#18 · (Edited)
Ian, were you crying for 50 cents per nuc? I mean, come on. One nuc in your area will produce 150 pounds and 200 is not really unrealistic. At $1.85 or so today, one hive can pay for all those feeders. My point being I think you can afford them. More importantly you cannot afford to loose the nucs. I have heard of guys feeding in sheds at this time of the year. They turn the heat up a bit and fill the frame feeders. They bring the stacks of bees from one part of the building unstack and feed, restack and move on to the next stack. In my experience feeding in cool and damp weather is so risky. It takes the bees a lot of energy and life force to process the syrup and cure it to the right moisture content. The only way I think it works over on the Prairies is the vey low relative humidity of the air. That low moisture probably helps the bees evaporate the moisture without taking all their vitality. Around here the air is very damp making it very difficult for the bees to lower moisture. It is a very good way to damage your hives here.

That being said if it were my bees and if I had 400 frames of honey I would shake the bees of some combs and give them 2 frames of honey each.
You could also get one of those racket making machines that recirculate the syrup and have a manifold that sprays the syrup in the comb. You could do that first then give 2 frames of freshly sprayed syrup per nuc. Either way good luck.

Jean-Marc
 
#24 ·
Your Welcome! Dreamed it up after lots of trial and error or should I say mostly error! ha ha :)
Now I am kicking around the idea of a slide in screen in that top entrance by cutting a groove in the top cleat kinda like a sliding window in your house. This is for moving my bees as I like to screen and net the load unless it is a short move then it is screen and load and go. Currently I just staple stout alum expanded mesh over the entrances using a slap stapler but by the time I get one stapled the bees on the rest of the pallet are boiling out b/c they feel the stapler hitting the other boxes and they know the routine even at night. So I figure if I can just walk around and slide the screened windows (entrances) shut it will save a lot of time and I will not leave hardly any bees behind when moving them! Mtn Bee
 
#25 ·
Id love pictures of that, but cant take a picture of your thoughts, right?!

I think it incredibly interesting hearing other beekeepers "ways" or "doodads" they have come up with to make this work easier.

Dont even get me started on the project I initiated this winter to help pull honey!
 
#27 ·
Ian I will send you some pics once I have the prototype built and you can let me know what you think. Always great to hear input from other beeks and get there 2 cents for something that might have been staring me in the face but was overlooked or in other words "Beek Tunnel Vision". ;)
 
#31 ·
Nick, interesting your experience is 40 F as to when difficulties arise in the wintering shed. I very comfortable with temperature up to about 50 F and not too concerned if temperatures reach mid 50's F in spring for a couple of hours. If I want to work in the wintering shed, I normally drop the temperature down to 35 F or so.

Ian, I will try to post some pictures next week showing the wire supports the beekeepers that fed with the tubs used. The holes were very small. I think they made them with a small nail.
 
#45 ·
Nick, interesting your experience is 40 F as to when difficulties arise in the wintering shed. I very comfortable with temperature up to about 50 F and not too concerned if temperatures reach mid 50's F in spring for a couple of hours. If I want to work in the wintering shed, I normally drop the temperature down to 35 F or so.

We try and hold our shed at 40 F. The problem is when the lights are on they want to leave the box. I don't want them out of the box until we haul them to California. I don't sweep or turn the main red lights on at all once they are in. I check the temp. every day and make sure the fans are working and leave them alone. This past winter was the easiest we have had it for controlling temps as it was colder outside.
We are only in storage for about 60 days, so its not really the same program you guys have up north. How many pounds do you figure a good hive (8-10 frames bees) loses over a normal winter? Also do see much bee population losses?
 
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