57 degrees and most of the girls are staying inside today.

[mmmooretx]

Yesterday they were still bringing in pollen today they are indoors, game day? I may end up putting in my plastic varroa boards in soon so the girls don't have to work as hard to maintain the hive temperature, sprayed with Pam for some checks. My BeeWeaver bees seem to have them under control so far. I tried that during July before my split and only had 5 from a 24 hour check. But I got a lot of bearding so I assume it was too warm do them with the board in.

[Pamela White]

I am worried about my bees. I put some candy on the top of the second deep and put a honey super on top to feed them. It got cold the last couple of nights. Do you think they are ok?? I am going to check on them today. Do you think I should take the super off and not feed?

[mmmooretx]

Pamala,
I am a newbee, started 2 June this year. However our climate is much milder than our friends up North that are already seeing some snow. During your inspection check how many frames of honey and pollen you have. From what Ihave read 2 deeps of 10 frame should be enough for us. On an 8 frame med. super set up I think 3 med. are equivalent. I have been feeding a 1:1 syrup with Honey B Healthy and Amino B Booster since I did a split on July 23 from my one hive, 2 deeps, to make 3 hives. I just added a second deep to the two new hives and am still feeding them hoping they make it through the winter. I would expect the queens to start slowing down their laying soon, but I still have the girls bringing in pollen. I am running SBBs and have gotten responses from as far North as MN. that they leave them open all year, so we should be fine. Probably mid Nov. to early Dec. i will switch over to 2:1 mix so the girls do not have to work as hard, evaporating the syrup. I got my bees from BeeWeaver and they are well aclimated to our environment. Also I do not plan on wrapping/insulating my hives. My hives are next to my back yard fence so they have a good wind brake.

[Pamela White]

Thank you so much for your help. I am brand new to this also.

[Gypsi]

I'm a 2nd year, for what it's worth. In Holland, 2 deeps is plenty. And I am sure your bees are fine, at least from temperature. Mine are out and buzzing all over this morning, at 68, the sun finally came out. Their main effort is to try and get the stores from my little nuc that has a small swarm in it, and they are failing, so hopefully they'll go find some pollen soon. They are in the pond getting water, and just bees in the air everywhere here. I'm in Fort Worth. We got pretty cold this past weekend.

(my staple gun and some window screen are causing their fail.)

And it is not a great idea to open the hive when temp is below 65. If necessary yes, but if you have a feed jar opening or other way to peek that would be better.

Gypsi

[mmmooretx]

Pamala,
Gypsy makes an excellant point. I have built 3 FBM (Fat Bee Man) feeders and use with screened inner covers so I can take the telescoping top off, view the syrup level without opening the hive (don't even need a net/hat for this) and refresh if needed. You can roughly guess the necter flow by how many bees are in the feeder cages, plus how long it has been since last refreshed. If you put patties in you will have to take the feeder off and put the room temperature patty (I only put 1/3 of one in at a time because SHB love them too). The good is IF you need to feed on a cold day you can without chilling the hive. On a warm day do a fast inspection to see how their stores are holding up (helps in judging if or when patties or syrup are needed).
If you want to watch the FBM videos he is on YouTube as fireshooter. All of his plans are around $5, his home page is below.
http://www.dixiebeesupply.com/Dixieb...t_Bee_Man.html