Mountain Camp Question

c10250 · January 17, 2010, 11:21:31 AM

For various reasons, I would like to keep my inner cover on and put the sugar on top of the inner cover. Has anyone ever done this? Do you put the paper down over the hole in the inner cover, and simply poor sugar over the paper. Or should I just poor sugar on top of the inner cover and let them access through the center hole?

garys520 · January 17, 2010, 11:37:25 AM

I don't think you can get a lot of sugar on top of the inner cover. If you use a 2 inch spacer and then put the inner cover on top of that it will allow you to pour about 7 to 10 pounds of sugar on a newspaper located right on top of the frames.

Kathyp · January 17, 2010, 12:21:44 PM

i do it. works fine. you can't get as much sugar on, but i don't really need to. it's convenient.

if you feel that your hives are light and you really need to feed, you may want to use a method that will allow you to put much more sugar on.

c10250 · January 17, 2010, 01:21:01 PM

I have an empty deep sitting over the inner cover, with insulation added. There is room for a lot of sugar. I was just wondering how I would do it. I was going to poor sugar between the insulation and the inner cover. Should I just poor it on top of the inner cover, around the hole?

rdy-b · January 18, 2010, 01:57:28 AM

these are the pics of the set up from MOUNTIAN CAMPS web site-to get benifit from system NO iner cover is used - 8-)

http://www.mountaincampfarm.com/wst_page5.php _RDY-B

Wynoochee_newbee_guy · January 18, 2010, 02:32:44 AM

take a empty super or deep lay news paper down on the top of the frames place empty super/deep on, pour sugar on the news paper place inner cover on outer cover on your fine.

David LaFerney · January 18, 2010, 11:41:33 AM

I'm feeding sugar on top of the frames on a sheet of newspaper with an empty super as a shim - for the first time.

Here's my observations so far:

1) It's easy
2) It works - the bees are absolutely eating quite a lot of the sugar.
3) The hive seems quite dry - may or may not be because of the sugar, but I think it helps - my weather is humid when it isn't cold in the winter.
4) Some of the sugar - maybe 1/2 cup so far - falls through the hive and ends up on the sticky board when the bees chewed the paper out from the area above the cluster. I should have dampened it more when I added it so that it would clump up better. If I could get it fondant would probably be better. If I wasn't a lazy procrastinator candy would be dandy.
5) When I open the top for a quick peek the sugar helps to keep most of the heat down there in the hive.

So far so good.

6) Now I need to add more sugar (I started with 10 pounds per hive) and the bees are on the sugar and also inside of the sugar in a nice little cave they have hollowed out. So, do I wait for them to eat more of the sugar, or try to smoke them down now while it is warm so that I can be sure they have plenty in case it gets cold again? Maybe I should make candy and add it in chunks.

I think I should have started out with more sugar on the hives. Other than those adjustments I imagine I will do the same next year.

Michael Bush · January 18, 2010, 12:27:09 PM

The problem with putting the sugar on TOP of the inner cover is that the bees have to leave the cluster to eat it. The intent is that when bees CAN'T leave the cluster, they can still eat... therefore the sugar should be on one sheet of newspaper directly on top of the top bars.

DM · January 19, 2010, 07:23:42 PM

Last winter, I used newspaper on top of the frames with the sugar on top. I also used a empty medium super as a deeper shim to have more space to add 5 pounds of sugar or so. It works well.

1of6 · January 20, 2010, 05:29:21 PM

Quote from: David LaFerney on January 18, 2010, 11:41:33 AM
...Now I need to add more sugar (I started with 10 pounds per hive) and the bees are on the sugar and also inside of the sugar in a nice little cave they have hollowed out. So, do I wait for them to eat more of the sugar, or try to smoke them down now while it is warm so that I can be sure they have plenty in case it gets cold again? Maybe I should make candy and add it in chunks.

I think I should have started out with more sugar on the hives. Other than those adjustments I imagine I will do the same next year.

Dave, When I see a large hollowed out cavity, I make a 'plug' or patch, whichever you want to call it - I think a lot of folks who put in small piles or burned through a lot of sugar will need their 'MountainCamp patches' this year.

I've patched using a piece of paper towel stuffed down in the hole and then poured new sugar over top, but this year I just used a less-than-full-sized piece of newspaper. Make sure you get it down into the hole close to the top bars if you can, and make sure that the top is down against the pile so your new sugar can't fall down.

One FYI - as a personal preference, I don't wet to clump, but I know many do. I can try to post a picture later of a plug if it'd be helpful.

Hope this is in some way helpful.