What about your winterfood

[Finman]

In Finland we take away away honey and give sugar 20 kg /hive.

What is your style?

Someone leave 5 kg honey to colony for winter and some 15 kg. That is not important. The pollen for winter and for spring is important because pollen has vitamins and other nutritients for bees. Honey is only energy.

Many have started their winter feeding. I have still yield honey in hives.

[Lesli]

Another list I read is debating this question: let them store honey for themselves or feed syrup. Here in Upstate NY, we have a fall nectar flow: goldenrod and aster. But apparently, this can crystalize quickly. Some say that sugar is better because it has fewer solids, and so the bees don't need as many cleansing flights in the winter.

Others say that honey is their food, they winter fine on it.

Since this is my first winter, I'll certainly be feeding syrup in the fall, regardless of what the girls manage to put away.

[michael l burnett]

we have taken most of the honey(10 lbs, per hive...not as much as we hoped...rainy summer???) and are allowing them to hopefully finish small supers they had started on...soon as it cools of a bit we are going to strip rest of honey , insulate them ,start feeding sugar,. and say a big ol'prayer as we are using no meds.   stay tuned...brookie

[golfpsycho]

This will be my first year trying to overwinter bees in Utah.  I left on everything in the first two deeps.  As it happens, I just finished mixing up some syrup to help top them off.  Our temperatures are varying widely lately, 60 for the high one day, 90 the next, and overnight lows in the 40's.  Winter is coming to the Wasatch.   I mixed the syrup 2/1 so as not to artificially keep brood rearing in high gear, but if daytime temps keep getting in the high 80's, I'm not sure it will work out that way.  I plan to make up some fondant and put it in the freezer, just in case I find myself in a pinch.

[Anonymous]

Finman.  Tell me more about the terrarium heater.  What wattage is it?  Is it temperature adjustable?  Do you set it just high enough to keep them in cluster so they don't use stores, or do you crank it up?  Just wondering.

[Finman]

Finman.  Tell me more about the terrarium heater.  What wattage is it?  Is it temperature adjustable?  Do you set it just high enough to keep them in cluster so they don't use stores, or do you crank it up?  Just wondering.

I use terrarium heater at spring when brooding starts after cleanin flight. Feefing pollen and heating is very good combination. Last spring I kept heaters from March to end of June. We had really cold start of summer. I had in my all hives heater. I started to use them 2 years ago when I lost 66% my colonies.

15 W terrarium cable is good. 8 W is suitable for nucs. 3 W is meaningles.
15 w is too much for winter.

Also I use now, when I  start new little colony with 3-4 frames, queen can lay eggs 3 times more than naturally. Little nucle developes very quickly. After a month hive will  fill the whole one  box.

I tried last winter heater for 4 little hives. The smallist was 2 frames. It went trouhg the winter. I can say, that without heater 2-frame colony will die normally. Now it was very healthy.

Now my all hive are big, and they are too many.