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Just trying to reach out to beekeepers in my general area to ask localized questions. Due to my work schedule I can not make it to my beekeepers association meeting.
Hi, Im not in northern Utah, but in Price/Helper, I'm a four year beekeeper who has yet to get a colony through the winter.Just trying to reach out to beekeepers in my general area to ask localized questions. Due to my work schedule I can not make it to my beekeepers association meeting.
What do you mean by "medicating"? If you mean a mite treatment, you are way too late IMHO. I would move it up to August at the latest. That is probably why you are having difficulties getting a hive through the winter.Today I’m putting up straw bales on 3 sides , tarp over top, and filling gaps in hives with wrapped insulation, installing sugar blocks as well. And medicating. Fingers crossed.
Well this afternoon was beautiful, huge change from the 23° we had just a couple of days ago. Bees are bringing in tons of pollen but I'm not so sure about nectar after that cold snap. So today I moved the last of the nucs (a September mated queen) into an 8 frame and gave it some full frames of honey. They are all fed and all the top box deep frames are filled and capped. I pulled the last of the feeders off, but one hive objected quite strenuously, the others were calm like they were happy to be rid of them. Everyone has pollen and a honey dome in the lower box. They are half way through their fall Apivar treatment. I will remove the Apivar strips the first decent weekend after Halloween. That is when I'll put the 2" XPS foam board wraps on and tape up the joints with gorilla tape since I (hopefully) won't be going back into them. I will also install the Vivaldi boards at the same time I put the XPS wraps on. I did go ahead and converted all of my quilt boxes to Vivaldi boards now — it's a super easy conversion with 1/2" plywood and pocket screws. I expanded a fair bit this summer so I need to build two more new Vivaldi boards from scratch before Halloween. I picked up the stuff at the home center today so I can knock them out this week. I also built a new insulated hive cover based on an idea I've been toying with to mimic how some Northern European beekeepers are using perspex and insulated covers for winter with just one hive. The insulated cover and the perspex inner cover is now on the single deep that now has the September nuc. Hopefully the perspex inner cover should allow me to monitor this hive frequently through the winter without cooling the hive since they are still a small colony.How are you guys doing with winter prepping?