warm spell followed by COLD

slacker361 · February 23, 2011, 06:50:04 PM

We just had a week of warm weather, upto the 70's, then we got hammered ,8 inches of snow and sub freezing temps

do you guys think the bees are in trouble after that?

would the warm weather break the cluster, and then cause the bees to be in trouble in the cold temps?

jldoll · February 23, 2011, 07:09:14 PM

Hope you took advantage of that warm weather and made sure there is lots of honey above the brood nest.
The bees are not in trouble. They will go into a cluster and back out. As the temp goes into the 70s during the day and drops below 32 degrees at night. This just gives them time to move there stores around.
Jerry

AllenF · February 23, 2011, 09:04:56 PM

I think bees are smarter than we think, but there may be some chilled brood, some, not much.

Brian D. Bray · February 24, 2011, 12:46:03 AM

Un predicatble weather patterns, and the fact winter is only half over, is one of the problems with trying to feed bees in February to get a jump on the season. Feeding fondant or syrup and pollen patties is a good way to prompt the bees into enlarging their brood nest for an early buildup. On the down side is what has just happened here in Western Washington, just as it has for the last 3 years, we get a nice moderately mid-February and many beekeepers start feeding their bees, then comes the 2 week hard freeze with snow.

A sudden prolonged cold snap/snow that prohibits the beekeeper from continuing to feed his bees plus the fact that the bees most likely won't break cluster to move stores or feed on what was placed in the hive can mean disaster. Especially considering that with the feeding, the bees began a large commitment to and expanded brood nest. This uses up a lot of the feed and stores the bees had and could prevent them from going into a tight cluster needed to survive the sudden cold spell.

I've seen a lot of hives die that way in early spring and some have wrongly called it CCD. It's not CCD, not when the stores are used up and the bees are head down in the brood cells having cannabalized every egg, larva, and pupae still in the white.

We just got 8 inches of snow since yesterday with as much forecast for the next 48 hrs and sub-freezing temps for the foreseeable future. Just the kind of think that manufactures deadouts from fed bees.

T Beek · February 24, 2011, 07:48:39 AM

70's!!!! Wow! As long as they have honey/feed stores a warm up will allow them to "move" toward it.

I noticed that someone asked but haven't seen an answer; Did you take the opportunity to LOOK inside to see if they had honey?

thomas

Brian D. Bray · February 24, 2011, 11:12:15 AM

Quote from: T Beek on February 24, 2011, 07:48:39 AM
70's!!!! Wow! As long as they have honey/feed stores a warm up will allow them to "move" toward it.

I noticed that someone asked but haven't seen an answer; Did you take the opportunity to LOOK inside to see if they had honey?

thomas

With Italian bees, particularly, they will go bonkers dedicating all of the stores to brood production. A beekeeper can look in his hive, see what he thinks is suffiecient stores, and begin feeding for buildup. Once the queen is stimulated sufficiently to do the buildup the hive can go through 10 frames of honey plus patties and syrup filling 16 of 20 frames with brood.

This is the main reason a beekeeper must continue to feed the bees once he's started, to prevent the bees from dying of starvation from an overextended brood production. With cold weather and snow on the ground keep feeding even if you have to scrape snow away from the entrance and use a boardman feeder, with warm syrup, a quart or a pint per day.

wildbeekeeper · February 24, 2011, 11:20:19 AM

they will be fine. They will take the opportunity to move some stores around if they have brrod or shift cluster if they dont. Ive had fondant on mine since January. THeyve moved off it to other areas with stores. We should be up in the 40 here this week and next, so they should be ok. Once it 50s consistently though, Im feeding syrup.

slacker361 · February 24, 2011, 07:36:12 PM

Quote from: T Beek on February 24, 2011, 07:48:39 AM
70's!!!! Wow! As long as they have honey/feed stores a warm up will allow them to "move" toward it.

I noticed that someone asked but haven't seen an answer; Did you take the opportunity to LOOK inside to see if they had honey?

thomas

I did not get a chance to look deep in the hive, but some where feeding on the sugar board and pollen patty that I had placed on the hive, unfortunately I got my truck stuck in the soggy ground and was spending most of my efforts to get that unstuck :(