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369 Posts
Hi,
There has been more then a couple of days with temps in the 50-60. The bees were gathering pollen from hazel trees - there are tons in my area. I took out some frames and they were kinda stuffed with pollen and nectar - heavy frames. I have a hive that overwintered as single - plenty of bees from side to side and I decided to give them a couple of empty frames for the queen to lay in. I also fed them a quart of heavy sugar syrup and they took it.
In my area doing this this time of the year is considered crazy(normally should be done in April) but I took the decision considering the circumstances: mild winter, powerfull colony, new pollen comming in, my need of making increase.
I really want to understand the principles behind beekeeping instead of mechanically use a beekeeper's calendar. The seasons are not what they used to be anyway. The climate is changing rapidly so why not adapting to it?
What do you think? What should I continue with? Should I give them more sugar? For now I've stopped since they have enough open nectar in the frames.
There is not much risk involved as I only have 2 hives. I allready ordered another 5 and will split them to 20 after the main flow on black locust (I will graft).
Thanks.
There has been more then a couple of days with temps in the 50-60. The bees were gathering pollen from hazel trees - there are tons in my area. I took out some frames and they were kinda stuffed with pollen and nectar - heavy frames. I have a hive that overwintered as single - plenty of bees from side to side and I decided to give them a couple of empty frames for the queen to lay in. I also fed them a quart of heavy sugar syrup and they took it.
In my area doing this this time of the year is considered crazy(normally should be done in April) but I took the decision considering the circumstances: mild winter, powerfull colony, new pollen comming in, my need of making increase.
I really want to understand the principles behind beekeeping instead of mechanically use a beekeeper's calendar. The seasons are not what they used to be anyway. The climate is changing rapidly so why not adapting to it?
What do you think? What should I continue with? Should I give them more sugar? For now I've stopped since they have enough open nectar in the frames.
There is not much risk involved as I only have 2 hives. I allready ordered another 5 and will split them to 20 after the main flow on black locust (I will graft).
Thanks.