Good or bad

[keswickb]

New beek, one started in may one started in june ,1nis 20 lbs lite of 150nand hive 2 is 30 lbs short. Both are taking 1 gal a day. Think they no winer is coming early.They are sucking 1 gal in less in 12 hrs
.I think going to be bad winter.Old courtry boy here,just see what I see.

[Andrew Dewey]

1 Gallon of heavy (2:1) syrup translates to 10 pounds of stores presuming the bees are storing it and not using it to continue summer activities such as raising brood. So your hives should be up to the desired weight you mentioned in just a few days. If you think it is going to be a bad winter, what extra steps are you taking to make sure the bees laugh off the weather? Getting them up to weight is a great start!

[keswickb]

Been thinking about putting a quilt on bees .Cause live by river, fog is aways and issue. So thinking put 3 inch spacer fill with saw dust to capture moisture in hive and hlp with ventilation.Just Thinking.

[Beregondo]

1 Gallon of heavy (2:1) syrup translates to 10 pounds of stores presuming the bees are storing it and not using it to continue summer activities such as raising brood.

A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs.
A gallon of sugar weighs about 4.175 lb
That means a gallon of 2:1 isn't going to weigh much more than about 6 lb.

How is that possible to translate into 10 lbs. of stores?
After reducing moisture content to reduce it into honey for stores, it will weigh much closer to 5 lbs than 10.

[whiskers]

In solution the sugar molecules hide among the water molecules. Thus a gallon of sugar solution will weigh more than an equal volume of either water or sugar. Also you will find that one volume of sugar dissolved in one volume of water will yield less than two volumes of solution.
Bill

[Andrew Dewey]

10 pounds of stores has been the figure i have used the last few years without known problems, and one that I originally heard from a well respected commercial beekeeper. i have to make up more syrup later this week. I'll check the weight (and post here) of 1 gallon of syrup.

[ralittlefield]

A gallon of sugar weighs about 4.175 lb

Are you sure? I've never checked, but it seems to me that a 10 lb bag of sugar would be closer to the size of a gal jar.

[Andrew Dewey]

Been thinking about putting a quilt on bees .Cause live by river, fog is aways and issue. So thinking put 3 inch spacer fill with saw dust to capture moisture in hive and hlp with ventilation.Just Thinking.

I hear you there. We are not far from the coast and have a tidal river to contend with for moisture. Fog is an issue here too - and one reason I don't use screened bottom boards. Let us know how the saw dust works out.

[psfred]

You will want to use very coarse sawdust -- even commerical mill sawdust like is used for horses may be too small. Planer shavings will work better.

Reason is you want slow air movement through the sawdust, that way the moisture can move through and not just sit there. Too compacted, and you will have moldy sawdust instead of a dry hive.

Chopped leaves work really well too, and if you only have fine sawdust, mix it will coarse chopped leaves or something similar.

Shredded wood mulch is quite nice too, so is small particle bark mulch -- anything that won't fall through #8 screen and is made of wood or bark.

Peter

[WWW]

I am fond of using cedar bedding chips from the farm supply store, large chips and smells good to.

[JRG13]

I made a liter of 1:1 awhile back, it was about 600g each sugar and water. A gallon is 3.785 liters, so about 4510g, which is 9.94lbs.

[Bush_84]

Going to throw my two cents in here. Did you say that those hives are short of 150 lbs? Also how bad can your winters really be? Even in a worst case scenario, how bad are Virginian winters? Do your bees really require 150 lbs to winter in virginia?

[Andrew Dewey]

As promised I got the scales out and did before and after filling weights of 1 gallon cans. A gallon of 2:1 sugar syrup weighs just over 12 pounds. The syrup being weighed was made with 30lbs of water and 60lbs of sugar.