Bees too?!?!

[Happy Chooks]

soarwitheagles - did you ever get that big eucalyptus flow? I cannot imagine the upkeep with 25 hives. I'll just keep my 3 for the moment. (which I'm sure will expand to 5 next summer with swarms)

babs - I do the pollen patties in early spring. It helps them start building up for the first flow. (Fruit trees and manzanita here) If it's over 50*, I can feed liquid, but I prefer to not do it until it's 60*. I haven't sprinkled raw sugar, so I can't comment on that.

 

[soarwitheagles]

You do really nice work. Do you like the top jar feeders? Easy to change? I have tried different feeders but haven't found one I really like. I have a least one hive, maybe two that I need to feed this winter. I am worried that the jar feeders might freeze in the winter. I have tried patties but not really sure they eat much of it. Someone suggested just sugar sprinkled in hives.

babs,

After using various feeders, I am convinced the top feeder is the way to go for us here.

Here is why:

1. No robbing.
2. We can easily monitor the syrup levels.
3. Super easy to refill.
4. No bee drowning.
5. No mold, mildew, or fungus because the feeder is outside the box.

The jars in the pic I posted are the 1 qt. mason jars. Super easy to change out, but I prefer the 1 gallon pickle jars myself. I think Costco is selling the 1 gallon jars of pickles right now for $3. During prime feeding times, the bees require massive nectar or sugar syrup to build the comb. I have had hives consistently devour 1 gallon of syrup in less than a week. I prefer that to changing/refilling quart jars daily. I will do my best to post some pics with the gallon jars too.

There are other options to syrup feeders. You can also make bee candy, etc. Remember, where there is a flow, you do not need sugar or pollen sub.

Patties are for a pollen substitute. We use the Mann Lake Ultra mix. Last year they were selling 50lb bags for dirt cheap, free shipping. I think a 50lb bag can produce 250lbs of patties after you mix it with sugar and HFCS. I have barely used 20% of the bag. If the queen does not see an ongoing supply of pollen, she will greatly reduce her laying of eggs because she knows larvae desperately need pollen for food. So if you are giving sugar syrup and pollen sub during the dearth, the queen thinks everything is fine, and she will often lay 2,000 eggs per day or more, resulting in a greatly multiplied hive. If the queen does not see the nectar and pollen, she will either stop laying eggs or greatly reduce her laying of eggs.

Last, to prevent freezing, you can use smaller jars or plastic buckets with a super box on top. That will prevent the freezing. We rarely feed in winter simply because we like to build up the hives in the fall. Then there is no need to feed in the winter.

Hope this helps!

 

[soarwitheagles]

soarwitheagles - did you ever get that big eucalyptus flow? I cannot imagine the upkeep with 25 hives. I'll just keep my 3 for the moment. (which I'm sure will expand to 5 next summer with swarms)

babs - I do the pollen patties in early spring. It helps them start building up for the first flow. (Fruit trees and manzanita here) If it's over 50*, I can feed liquid, but I prefer to not do it until it's 60*. I haven't sprinkled raw sugar, so I can't comment on that.

Happy,

Much to our dismay, the "BIG MASSIVE" Eucalyptus flow never happened here this year. Remember, the Eucs here usually enter into a massive, spectacular bloom and flow every two years. Last spring was suppose to be the MASSIVE flow. Guess what happened? Less than 15% of all trees bloomed and those that did, the flow was dismal. I think it caused by the ongoing drought. Our forest appears very unhealthy right now...perhaps the worst in 100+ years.

We are hoping and praying for a wonderful rainfall this year. Our Euc forest may not be able to survive without it.

Soar

 

[babsbag]

How many holes do you punch in the lid?

I haven't had a hive going into winter in a few years so while I have been 'keeping bees' for 7 years winter is still relatively new to me. Last year I lost three hives in Oct. probably from mites as I bought packages that had not been treated. This year I bought nucs that were treated and they seem incredibly happy, but the swarms I caught are small.

So in your opinion, if I were to feed now and the hive added more bees in the next two months would that make it harder or easier to get through the winter with limited stores? I figure either way I have to feed at least two of the hives this winter. I have used the dadant winter patties in the past but just don't see much activity on them.

 

[soarwitheagles]

How many holes do you punch in the lid?

I haven't had a hive going into winter in a few years so while I have been 'keeping bees' for 7 years winter is still relatively new to me. Last year I lost three hives in Oct. probably from mites as I bought packages that had not been treated. This year I bought nucs that were treated and they seem incredibly happy, but the swarms I caught are small.

So in your opinion, if I were to feed now and the hive added more bees in the next two months would that make it harder or easier to get through the winter with limited stores? I figure either way I have to feed at least two of the hives this winter. I have used the dadant winter patties in the past but just don't see much activity on them.

Babs,

I use hole saws and cut two of 2 and 1/16th inch holes in the lid. This is so I can have one hole as a vent in the dead heat of the summer, then one hole for placing the feeder jar on.

In the winter, I simply go back to a normal lid, no holes, because I rarely feed in the winter. I made those two hole lids just for the purpose of summer feeding of nucs. Nice thing about it, Home Depot has the 2 inch PVC caps that only cost like $0.23 per cap. That is how I seal the top when I want to. But my winter tops have no holes at all, because I need good insulation from cold and not even one drop of rain coming in.

If you have no flow in your area right now, I would feed until you see at least 3-4 frames of sugar syrup honey in each hive. That should be enough to feed your bees through the winter if your winter is not too harsh like back east.

If the Dadant patties aren't working, I would not use them. I use the Mann Lake Ultra, and there are parts of the year when the bees will literally devour a one pound patty in less than a week. When the flow is on, they barely touch it.

Hope this helps!

PS added a pic of our night time guard who loves munching on wax moths...he even posed with a smile, blue nose and all!

 

[babsbag]

Yeah for the guard, hope he eats all the moths and brings his friends for a feast. Had one on my back porch for awhile catching gnats that were attracted to the lights. It is so amazing to watch nature work as attended. I have these hoards of little tree frogs that come to the lights too, every night. They start the journey up the wall at dusk and feast on bugs all night, very cool.

Thank you for the information on the feeders. My winters aren't too much different than yours and I might actually have some warmer days as I seldom get the valley fog that you get. Our lows might be a tad lower and our frost dates a few weeks longer, but nothing dramatic.

I only have one set of lids right now, I bought the telescoping ones which I am not crazy about in the summer, too hard to vent by lifting a corner. But you have given me an idea...get the flat ones for summer with feeder holes and use the telescoping ones for winter as they do keep the rain out nicely.

As far as a flow right now, it is pretty much gone. A few star thistle, some tarweed, a few other thistles, and my flowers and garden. I mow my lawn around my clover and leave mustard to bloom in my orchard. Maybe feeding is in order. No major crops or alfalfa around me either.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I fed heavily in the fall last year, because stores were awfully low. They built up good storage, and I didn't need to feed all winter. I added the pollen patty (Dadant patties) around mid-January. One hive took them like crazy, the other took a while longer to get through it. They built up nicely for the spring bloom in February.

I guess I need to relocate my praying mantis' to my beehives. I see them all around, but not at my hives.

Hoping for a nice, wet winter. We had a great honey year this year, and hoping for a great year next year as well.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Happy,

Much to our dismay, the "BIG MASSIVE" Eucalyptus flow never happened here this year. Remember, the Eucs here usually enter into a massive, spectacular bloom and flow every two years. Last spring was suppose to be the MASSIVE flow. Guess what happened? Less than 15% of all trees bloomed and those that did, the flow was dismal. I think it caused by the ongoing drought. Our forest appears very unhealthy right now...perhaps the worst in 100+ years.

We are hoping and praying for a wonderful rainfall this year. Our Euc forest may not be able to survive without it.

Soar

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope they get the rain they need.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Yeah for the guard, hope he eats all the moths and brings his friends for a feast. Had one on my back porch for awhile catching gnats that were attracted to the lights. It is so amazing to watch nature work as attended. I have these hoards of little tree frogs that come to the lights too, every night. They start the journey up the wall at dusk and feast on bugs all night, very cool.

Thank you for the information on the feeders. My winters aren't too much different than yours and I might actually have some warmer days as I seldom get the valley fog that you get. Our lows might be a tad lower and our frost dates a few weeks longer, but nothing dramatic.

I only have one set of lids right now, I bought the telescoping ones which I am not crazy about in the summer, too hard to vent by lifting a corner. But you have given me an idea...get the flat ones for summer with feeder holes and use the telescoping ones for winter as they do keep the rain out nicely.

As far as a flow right now, it is pretty much gone. A few star thistle, some tarweed, a few other thistles, and my flowers and garden. I mow my lawn around my clover and leave mustard to bloom in my orchard. Maybe feeding is in order. No major crops or alfalfa around me either.

In summer, I have found a simply piece of white painted plywood works for a top. As mentioned earlier, I drill two holes at 2 and 1/16 inch. The vent hole I staple #2 hardware cloth on the underside so the air can enter, but keeps robber bees out. For the second hole, I simply place an inverted 16oz mason jar with 4 tiny 1/16 inch holes. The bees can go through that in a day or two.

I pulled all sugar syrup jars off because in the last week we are experiencing a massive bloom of the star thistle. It is the largest I have ever seen, it goes on and on for miles and not I am sure why it is happening. Second reason I pulled the sugar off is because during inspection time, I discovered most hives have more than enough stores for winter. Babs, the best thing I can recommend is to do inspections often. That way you can monitor the condition of each hive and make appropriate decisions in managing each hive. Randy Oliver's site has excellent pictures describing what to look for.

I am discovering quite a diversity from year to year and from hive to hive. Last spring, we had a massive number of mites. One 42 day treatment of Apivar decimated nearly every one of them and our hives began to thrive. Now, the mites are still nearly non-existent, so I am holding off with the OA vapor treatments which only cost pennies. A very good friend of mine who is a master beekeeper in the Sacramento area lost over half of his 70+ hives last winter due to the mites. We cannot afford to be careless with those creatures. They are horrible! Here in the Sacramento area, if you treat for mites too late, it can be the end of your hive during the winter months.

I experienced a terrible failure this summer when I attempted to raise 110 queens and make lots more hives. I used the Nicot system. I did massive reading, but still made several deadly mistakes. What could have been and should have been an easy 12+ hives turned into a horrific failure.

Most of it was my own fault [I did not space and orient the hives correctly, should have waited on the robber screens until AFTER the queens did their mating flight, and should have used a much stronger hive to raise the queen cells]. Worst of all, the queens mating flight times arrived the week we had 105-107 temps for 8 days in a row! So what should have been a 12 for 12 success rate, turned into an embarrassing 4/12 rate. I would have had much greater success if I had simply done splits.

After all is said and done, I have spent way too much time and money with the bees. With God's help, I hope to split and sell in the spring, double my initial investment, then I will downsize to 5 or so hives. What nobody told me was when you get up toward 15-20 hives, things begin to change...as in bees dive bombing you every time you open a water faucet in the summer within 100 yards of your bee apiary, many more stings, much greater risks, large spans of time to do the inspections, taking detailed notes on each hive [documentation], etc. The list goes on and on.

I am scaling way back.

Hope this helps!

I fed heavily in the fall last year, because stores were awfully low. They built up good storage, and I didn't need to feed all winter. I added the pollen patty (Dadant patties) around mid-January. One hive took them like crazy, the other took a while longer to get through it. They built up nicely for the spring bloom in February.

I guess I need to relocate my praying mantis' to my beehives. I see them all around, but not at my hives.

Hoping for a nice, wet winter. We had a great honey year this year, and hoping for a great year next year as well.

Congrats on the honey. We have never received much honey in the three years we been doing this.

Careful on the PM. Someone told me they also eat bees!

 

[Latestarter]

When I saw that PM sitting there I was thinking "That can't be good for the bees!" I mean they are deadly carnivores and will eat basically any insect they can get hold of. At least it was far away from the entrance... I guess you have to take the good with the bad...