Beginner worries

[stike]

This is my first winter having bees. I know our winters here are mild but I am getting concerned. I want to know if the girls are doing ok but I cannot get into the hive. Either it is too cold or I am working. Are there any external signs that somthing is wrong or everything is ok? I have seen a few flying on a day that was in the upper 40s and there have been a few dead at the entrance ( only like 10). I had SHB in this hive this year. Any advice would be appreciated.

[sqkcrk]

Leave them alone. It's probably the best thing you can do for them. Let them bee.

I know it is a temptation to see what is going on in a beehive at any one time during the year, but you can do more damage than good by disturbing the bees when it isn't necassary.

In late January you might want to heft you hive from behind to get an idea of it's weight. If it seems light, take off the covers and apply a 5 lb bag of sugar to the hive by first laying down a sheet of newspaper, then the sugar. Fold the edges towards the middle and put your covers back on. That sugar aught to last them a while. Probably until nectar starts coming in.

Assuming of course that the bees are still alive.

[PCM]

Your just having First Year, He-Bee-Gee-Bees, like 99% of all first year beekeepers get. Every new beekeeper wants a winter time look !

After the first year it turns into "Hope the bees are all right "

Really this time of year not much you can do for them.
Take sqkcrk advice !

Fall feed, late winter feed.

Good Luck & Merry Christmas
PCM

[MsBlackwolf]

Your just having First Year, He-Bee-Gee-Bees, like 99% of all first year beekeepers get. Every new beekeeper wants a winter time look !

After the first year it turns into "Hope the bees are all right "

Really this time of year not much you can do for them.
Take sqkcrk advice !

Fall feed, late winter feed.

Good Luck & Merry Christmas
PCM

Yep, I too have a bad case of the new beek Hee Bee Gee Bees.

[Hawkster]

you could do what my wife did and buy a stethoscope so you can listen to them hum :P at least you know they are alive !

[Ruben]

Just keep tilting the hives forward and getting a feel for how heavy they are. Then if they start to feel light you will want to start feeding. They will reaaly start going through the stores in about a month.

[George Heath]

I have Plastic Hive Top Feeders for the 2 hives im starting this spring.
Are these any good for winter feeding? If i find i need to feed in the winter ofcourse..

[BigDaddyDS]

Sugar syrup placed on a hive in the winter is near useless. Unless your daytime temperatures get up to the mid-50's, and hold steady there, the syrup is too cold for them to take down and use. In colder temps, the bees are clustered and won't go up into the feeder. And, in weather colder still, the syrup held over top of them will act as an icebox and either cool the cluster or cause condensation to form, thereby killing your bees.

Just hold tight. Your time to act has passed. Any winter preparations should have been done during the tail end of last summer and into last fall. NOW is not the time to worry about feeding. You've done (or should have done) everything you could for them already.

One exception is emergency feeding. I use the "Mountaincamp Method" (Do a search here on Beesource if you don't already know what that is.) and I have very good luck with it. In my case, my sugar is on already and I'll just be doing quick "sugar inspections" come late January. Candy boards, which are a LOT more work, can also be made and placed on hives. But, keep in mind that this is in NO way a substitute for fall feeding or leaving enough honey for them to over winter on. Like the name implies; EMERGENCY feeding.

One last item: It's pointless to heft the back of the hive to see if they have honey, unless you have honey to put on them. The only two things you'll accomplish is disturbing the clustered bees, and being able to predict their death. One of my primary beekeeping tenants is: Don't perform any operation unless you have a solution for the chaos you'll cause. In this case, why heft a hive, unless one has a spare super to place on them if they're light? In my case, I've left them what I *think* is enough honey, and provided emergency feed for them already. Hefting for me would only bother them at this stage of the game. My solutions are already in place. I used the best data available to me at the time, and I hope I guessed right!

Good luck. Stay the course. Be patient.
DS

[Pete0]

I think we all have these worries! I'm in SE VA and we are having some really long periods of cold weather. Nothing like the last few years. Anyway, I would suggest that you make up some fondant and have it ready for those 60 degree days that are sure to come in January and February. In my opinion those are the killers. Warms up enough that the bees start to consume more stores and then we get another week of cold weather and the cluster looses contact with stores and starves. I'm always ready to open the inner cover and place fondant on a warmer day.

Good luck,

Pete0
Bena, VA

For directions on making fondant visit our club website at this link: http://www.colonialbeekeepers.com/in...tion&Itemid=43

[mmiller]

I'm guilty as well. I miss my bees and can't wait for spring.

Mike

[StevenG]

Yeah, I'm guilty too.... I fed heavily in the fall, all hives were heavy... but you always wonder if you did enough, and how many colonies will make it through the winter. Food? Ventilation? Disease? Pests? Varmints? etc etc etc.
Regards,
Steven

[heaflaw]

Hi Stike,

I'm down the road from you in Lincoln Co. I agree to leave them completely alone until the first warm day of spring, then check to see if they need to be fed. If they are really low on stores and you don't have anything blooming yet or the weather will be rainy for days, then consider feeding. Maples are the first thing for me that seem to provide any appreciable nector. To replenish stores, feed 2 to 1 and to encourage brood rearing, feed 1 to 1. If you will have rain for days on end, I like to feed a pollen substitute. When the queen is laying well, they can go through pollen stores fast.

That's my 2 cents worth.

Enjoy your bees!!!!!

[Jack B. Nimble]

Are there any external signs that somthing is wrong or everything is ok? I have seen a few flying on a day that was in the upper 40s and there have been a few dead at the entrance ( only like 10).

A few bees venturing outside is never a bad sign. None or too many can be. When there are too many, it means the bees are stressed. When there are none, the bees in the cluster are too weak to leave it. With experience, you will get to get a feel for what is healthy.

What I sometimes do is I point a IR thermometer (sometimes called a non-contact thermometer) inside the top entrance of a hive. It will read a few degrees warmer than the outside of the hive. The more activity, the bigger the difference. If the temperatures are the same, the hive is either dead, or the cluster is small.

Of course, this is an indication of activity - which is hot always an indication of health. It is not an indication of remaining food stores. They could be on their last pound of honey and are about to starve.

[beedeetee]

If you have a SBB, take the slide out and clean if off a little and then put it back. After a week pull it out and you will see how many frames of bees you have and where they are in the hive.

If you clean it off each time you look, you can keep track of how they change. You will see honey cappings fall and at some point brood cappings will start.

[msapostol]

We had some frosty weather after Thanksgiving. Our two oldest hives were flying strong a couple days after the frost. One hive did not make an appearance at all. We got worried.

I tapped, but didn't hear any buzz in reply. We peered down the middle slit of our Serge-style hive top feeder, but couldn't see anything. We figured we couldn't do anything else for them and just decided to wait it out.

About 4 or 5 days later, they came out of the box. What I learned is that all hives are different and I can't expect them all to be on the same timetable even if they are in the same beeyard.

Good luck!