I just returned from my beekeeping supplier.
I have another question for you !!
He was telling me I should take all honey from the hive except for a bit in the bottom box. Then he said, when Fall comes to feed them a ratio of 2.5/1 sugar water syrup and they will put that in stores. He says they will winter better this way.
I'm pretty sure I've only read about having honey in stores and we all talked about how much honey to have in stores just a couple of days ago.
But still.....I'd like to hear your opinions on this.
I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
Personally, I would leave them the honey and scratch the fall feeding of sugar. Take a frame or two for personal use (seeing the other pics you had looked like you were close to being honey bound anyways). Extract a frame or two and put it back inside the hive for them to clean up and reuse. Alot of commercial beeks that depend on the sale of honey will extract everything and then do a heavy fall feeding of sugar due to sugar being cheaper than honey. But I dare say that in the long run, your bees will benefit from you leaving them their own honey.
Syrup is usually specified by the ratio of sugar to water. You can't make a 2.5:1 solution of sugar to water. 2:1 is difficult to make. I use a 3:2 ratio.
You can pull and freeze most of the honey now, leaving enough to get the bees through any dearth in your area. In the Fall, check to see if the bees have added enough stores to get through winter. If they don't have enough, give them back enough of their honey to get them through winter. The reason not to leave the honey in the hive is that the foragers in a dearth will just eat it.
This is how we do it here, but in Canada things may be different. I don't know that you even have a dearth.
I won't say that syrup is better than honey for the bees, but sugar is a whole lot cheaper than honey. Most commercial guys sell all the honey out of the hive then replace with syrup. The only good thing with the syrup is it can be medicated. I try to leave enough honey in the hives for the winter myself.
another thing to consider....if you fed earlier in the year or even last fall, the stuff in your brood boxes may not be honey that you want to eat. it may be capped syrup. the only way you would know is to have known what was in your brood boxes when you quit feeding.
I am not sure if this would apply to me.
When I started up exactly 2 months ago, there weren't any blossoms, so I gave them a bit of sugar/water and a pollen patty. At total of 3 quarts for each of my 2 hives was given to them.
There are beekeepers who believe that bees winter better on sugar syrup. There are beekeepers who believe they winter better on honey. There are studies that they get less nosema on honey, especially dark honey.
I leave them honey.
If you were a bee what would you prefer? Honey stores or sugar syrup?
thomas
Quote from: T Beek on July 27, 2011, 01:58:52 PM
If you were a bee what would you prefer? Honey stores or sugar syrup?
thomas
Honey...sugar...who cares? Do you know how long they have to sit in there without any light and without pooping? Ugh....I'd need it fermented... who cares about flavor at that point!!
I use to extrct all honey from hives. Bees over winter with sugar splended.
He most important for bee healthy is pollen store. Honey has energy and pollen has everything else nutritions.
If bees have no pollen in frames after winter they are not able to start brood rearing.
20 kg sugar for winter is not much as money. But 20 kg honey is very valuable. Here it is 12 more valuable than sugar.
My bees live with sugar from September to May. It is 9 months.
I do not ask from bees what they like or disslike. I know the answer. They do not like me.
Has anybody asked from cow, does it want that its milk is stealed or from potatoe, does it want to be eaten.
Quote from: Finski on July 27, 2011, 05:46:38 PM
My bees live with sugar from September to May. It is 9 months.
Quote from: Finski on July 26, 2011, 11:19:19 AM
To keep colonies alive on backyard and feed sugar all year around is like keep aquarium fishes or feed sparrows.
:evil:
A little contradictory huh?
Quote from: VolunteerK9 on July 27, 2011, 07:21:43 PM
A little contradictory huh?
Not really...there are far more people feeding sparrows and keeping aquarium fish than keep bees, much less feed bees sugar. The point is is that it works and people do it.
For the record, I overwinter on honey, but mostly because I get enough for what I need and don't need the extra work.
Quote from: Scadsobees on July 27, 2011, 07:57:47 PM
Quote from: VolunteerK9 on July 27, 2011, 07:21:43 PM
A little contradictory huh?
Not really...there are far more people feeding sparrows and keeping aquarium fish than keep bees, much less feed bees sugar. The point is is that it works and people do it.
I wasnt saying that it doesnt work. To me it, Finski contradicted himself between the two seperate posts. On one topic is was implied that to feed bees year round like aquarium fish was a bad thing then later states that he feeds his 9 months out of the year.
No problem, I have an aquarium, so I don't see that as a bad thing nor contradictory :-D . I don't think he meant it as a bad thing.
Quote from: VolunteerK9 on July 27, 2011, 08:50:25 PM
Quote from: Scadsobees on July 27, 2011, 07:57:47 PM
Quote from: VolunteerK9 on July 27, 2011, 07:21:43 PM
A little contradictory huh?
Not really...there are far more people feeding sparrows and keeping aquarium fish than keep bees, much less feed bees sugar. The point is is that it works and people do it.
I wasnt saying that it doesnt work. To me it, Finski contradicted himself between the two seperate posts. On one topic is was implied that to feed bees year round like aquarium fish was a bad thing then later states that he feeds his 9 months out of the year.
yes, you are so funny to discuss about what person says, not the actual issuethat is verbal acrobaty.
I have contradicted nothing. I put my bees to winter rest at the beginning of Septermber.
Bees start to get food outside at thee end of May. during that time they eate sugar.
I feed the hives once in September.
When I read us forum, you feed hives all the time encourage to this ad that. "now i have brood box full, how much i feed sugar to get super full". in July!
I got now an average yield over 100 kg/hive. And no sugar feeding during summer.
Tear from that. My biggest hives have 7-8 boxes. perhaps youmake some controversy joke about that too.
my yield season started a month ago and after one week it is over.
Then vegetation startsto prepare for wnter. After one month I am feeding my bees for winter. Honey off and sugar in. Then bees are in peace up to Marsh.
.
Quote from: Scadsobees on July 27, 2011, 07:57:47 PM
For the record, I overwinter on honey, but mostly because I get enough for what I need and don't need the extra work.
that makes you a great guru with 3000 writings.
Get enough and no extra work. Seems like city council worker ? The office workers swet is the best cancer medicine. Put it into bottle.
Quote from: Finski on July 28, 2011, 07:26:00 AM
When I read us forum, you feed hives all the time encourage to this ad that. "now i have brood box full, how much i feed sugar to get super full". in July!
You feed your bees when they need it. So do we. We feed packages and splits in early JULY because we have a dearth. It is summer but there is no nectar. If we don't feed them in the dearth, there will be no bees for a Fall buildup. They will not survive the Winter if we wait until September to feed them.
You don't understand the dearth because you don't have a dearth. You feed your bees more sugar than we do. And still you criticize us for feeding too much. :? You feed sugar for 9 months and we feed for 2 months. But 2 weeks of that is in July.
Finski sounds a bit cantankerous today :), but what he says makes sense to me (at least in my climate).
Quote from: BlueBee on July 28, 2011, 01:08:54 PM
Finski sounds a bit cantankerous today :), but what he says makes sense to me (at least in my climate).
I agree with Finski too. And I don't blame him for his shortness... gets a little old.
..
Yes guys. I live in wrong climate and I am old.
I kno nothing bout beekeping .
- But my dead rate is not 40% like yours
- i do not need to waste 3 langstroh boxes honey to over winter bees some months
- 3 box honey = 70 kg honey = 140 lbs
- i use sugar on average 20 kg per hive to keep bees alive 9 months.
- during a short summer in two months I get bigger yields than you.
- i do not kill my hives before autumn and bye colonies in spring from Australia.
TO Framesift: you are smart guy and atleast you try. i can see better the USA CLIMATE.
You speak "we". Who we? A big USA? Or about Carolina which even not have real winter.
What do you understand about Us climate like Alaska, about Michican, about Florida?
Forums biggest mistake is that guru's advices are relevant everyhere but my nowhere.
You feed sugar in summer from from tiny jars and feed honey in winter .
I let bees pick they food from nature and take honey away and sell it.
You say that you have deart in USA. That is rubbish. It cannot be in whole North America. Big rubbish.
It is waste of life to debate with you. Keep your 40% losses and bye bees from Australia.
.
-
Quote from: Finski on July 28, 2011, 11:46:52 PM
- But my dead rate is not 40% like yours
Our beeyards did not lose any hives last winter. But I think we were just lucky.
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- i use sugar on average 20 kg per hive to keep bees alive 9 months.
We also use about 20 kg for each new package or split. But that is only in the first year. After that we use no sugar.
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- during a short summer in two months I get bigger yields than you.
Yes, I am very envious. The highest yields in the US are in the cold states... Minnesota and North Dakota.... as well as Louisiana which has swamps and lots of surface water and flowering plants that do not exist in other states.
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TO Framesift: you are smart guy and at least you try. i can see better the USA CLIMATE.
You speak "we". Who we? A big USA? Or about Carolina which even not have real winter.
When I say "we", I mean our beeyards. My daughter and I have two beeyards about 70 miles apart. I can't speak for North Carolina and certainly not for the whole country. But I don't think you understand the entire US climate.
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What do you understand about Us climate like Alaska, about Michican, about Florida?
Not much. I don't claim to. Finski, I lived in Sweden for 4 years, (1 year in Umea) so I do know what a real winter is. But I was not keeping bees then.
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You say that you have deart in USA. That is rubbish. It cannot be in whole North America. Big rubbish.
A large part of the US does have a dearth. It's worse in the South where I live. We (in our beeyards) have little nectar between July 15 and September 1. The bees still bring in pollen but they are eating their stores during this time. New hives must get some sugar during this time (in most years) to keep the bee population up. In subsequent years we just leave enough honey to get the bees through this time.
.
My brother kept bees 20 yyear in Piteå
near Umeå. I told him what do.it was not complex.
He started about 1972 with Langstroth and
with Italian bees. He got there 50 kg per hive.
Swedish don't kept Langstroth in those days and no Italias in North.
Then he got Carniolan swarm and it was good.
texas is 3 fold size of Finland. Why I should understand your climate. It is good if you undertand yourself that you need not kill bees before winter.