I have battened down the hatches, fed some syrup, treated for varroa with Apiguard, scaled down the size of the hives, and left surplus honey...
Questions:
How often should inspections be done during the Winter?
When should I put up a swarm catcher?
What brand of pheromone swarm stuff is best?
When should Spring feeding commence?
When should supplements like Mega Bee Bee Food be offered?
Thanks a heap!
For this area where I live, I do not even touch them November and December. If there is a nice warm day in January, and I do mean nice and warm, I may pop up the top just to see where the cluster is now located.
If they are still down below, then I do not worry about them. If I see them all over the top, I feel I want to see how much honey they have left. Last year I checked on them about the end of January and found they had eaten up almost all there honey and I had to give each hive a few frames of honey that I had frozen.
Any very warm day in January or February I like to check on them to see how the stores are going. If they need anything at that time I just feed them sugar syrup and nothing else. But last winter I had extra frames of honey I had frozen. This year I do not have any frames of honey to feed back to them. Guess I would just give them the baggie feeders inside the hive or plain sugar on an inner cover.
That is all I can answer. No experience with Swarms
Take care
annette
Quote from: DayValleyDahlias on November 02, 2008, 02:43:15 PM
I have battened down the hatches, fed some syrup, treated for varroa with Apiguard, scaled down the size of the hives, and left surplus honey...
Questions:
How often should inspections be done during the Winter?
When and if you have days with clear sunny skies, minimumal of no winds, and temps above 50F. Be Prepared for cranky bees. Otherwize leave them alone until mid-February, that's why we call it overwintering.
QuoteWhen should I put up a swarm catcher?
I usually put out a bait hive (swarm cathcher) from late-April to mid-August. Between the times I've seen the earliest swarms to the time I don't want to be bothered even developing a swarm in a winterable nuc.
QuoteWhat brand of pheromone swarm stuff is best?
It's pretty much all the same stuff and chances are the different suppliers get it from the same source. You could also invest in some lemon grass oil as it works just about as well and would be less costly as a little goes a long ways.
QuoteWhen should Spring feeding commence?
Mid-February is a good time.
QuoteWhen should supplements like Mega Bee Bee Food be offered?
When you start feeding in the spring if you find it necessary. Feed it often and in small amounts if you do feed. Pollen substitues are an SHB lure so feeding them should be limited in time and scope to avoid an AHB infestation. I usually find that my bees are already bringing in pollen when I go to feed them in the spring so I've never felt it necessary to feed pollen. In my area, at least, pollen sources are more abundant than nectar sources. Even now, early November, if it's warm enought for the bees to fly they bring back pollen.
QuoteThanks a heap!
Mox Nix.
Assuming one of the key reasons for an inspection in Winter is to determine the state of their food stores, rather than open the top, how about lifting the back of the hive to judge how heavy it is? If it's really light, you know what is most likely needed to do without even opening the lid.
Best regards,
John.
>How often should inspections be done during the Winter?
Never? I admit I can't help looking on nice days, but I only peek in the top or lift the back to see if they still have stores.
>When should I put up a swarm catcher?
They seldom swarm until shortly before the main flow. Here that's mid May to mid June that they usually swarm.
>What brand of pheromone swarm stuff is best?
I like straight lemongrass essential oil.
>When should Spring feeding commence?
I only feed them if the hives are light and I don't have enough stores I can steal from the deadouts.
>When should supplements like Mega Bee Bee Food be offered?
Never? I put some REAL pollen out for open feeding on the first warm days of late winter. But you can also put patties on if you prefer. I find many times they go to waste.
Oh Muchas Thanks to you all for that excellent advice...I appreciate it so muchly~*~
Sharon
Sharon
Just one more note. Here the swarm season starts very early. I had my hive swarm out in March the first spring.
And we do not have the sort of winters like they do back East.
We usually get those very warm days like into the 70's come end of January or February. You can easily open up the top when it warms up like that.
50 degrees and raining....sounds like spring to me...and fall...and much of winter! :evil:
KJ, lifting the back works if you have a good sense of weight. i don't have much luck with it. my alternative is to keep dry sugar on the inner cover. this provides emergency food and helps absorb some of the moisture. makes me sleep better :-)
I found a couple of scales searching through things looking for other things. 1 is a linear scale the other dial, both will measure up to 200 lbs. I figure to make a hive scale out of one of them by putting a S hook on the bottom end and affix a T handle at the other. I can then install eye screws in the back center of my hive stands and check hive weight in just a minute per hive.
My Dad used the dial scale for weighing hanging weight of carass when butchering (which I plan to do also) and the linear (slide) scale he kept in the boat for weighing salmon and halibut and the occassional 100+ lb Kelp Cod.