Middle TN bee winters

[Anna j]

I went to my first bee meeting today. Holy cow lots of information. John of Wolfcreek apiary advocates feeding Cane sugar as opposed to regular sugar and ensuring pollen feeding/supplements in the fall. I’ve lost two hives in two years over winter. I insulated this year and we know one hive (bought 2 last year to replace the one) had a weaker start due to a late season swarm. We didn’t supplement with pollen and he said since there may not have been that many drones around she may not have been bred fully. As I know there are a million different reasons a hive may die, I’m mostly interested in what y’all do to winter your hives,...and have them survive! Not much point if I have to restart every year. Expensive and no honey! I also plan to Start a journal so I can keep better track of things. What do you do?

 

[Anna j]

As a side note, after some quick research, domino sugar is cane sugar. But apparently some discount sugars are beet sugar and don’t supplement bee life even though they’ll drink it like normal cane sugar water.

 

[SeabassStesto]

I went to my first bee meeting today. Holy cow lots of information. John of Wolfcreek apiary advocates feeding Cane sugar as opposed to regular sugar and ensuring pollen feeding/supplements in the fall. I’ve lost two hives in two years over winter. I insulated this year and we know one hive (bought 2 last year to replace the one) had a weaker start due to a late season swarm. We didn’t supplement with pollen and he said since there may not have been that many drones around she may not have been bred fully. As I know there are a million different reasons a hive may die, I’m mostly interested in what y’all do to winter your hives,...and have them survive! Not much point if I have to restart every year. Expensive and no honey! I also plan to Start a journal so I can keep better track of things. What do you do?

I am a beekeeper in middle Tn, and although we’ve outgrown Tn in the winter times , if your a hobbyist, I’d recommend plenty of sugar water, with pro-health, and pollen patty’s for the winter. If you have the available materials , some kind of insulation is good too.

 

[soarwitheagles]

We've used Costco sugar for years...