Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I just ordered enough seed to do an acre plot at the new place. Figured it wouldnt hurt. I put a variety of plants in the mix we will see which ones the bees prefer and then adjust accordingly in the future.
Honey Bees
- Thread starter Peeps
- Start date
cavey
5 year old buck +
Well I managed to kill my bees ... popped the hives yesterday to find them dead. I was into the hives end of December and added a sugar board and a deep on top as an insulated box with saw dust, they had a moisture board on top with venting. Feeding box had diy bee fondant in it and pollen patties. I made it with a front top entrance that was isolated from the feed area - basically they had to come up from the front of the deep or medium under the feed box. Had the hive insulated with 2" foam. And did a fall might treatment. They were happy campers in the End of Dec. It was the first year so I didnt pull any honey and they had stores just wanted to give them the best chance to make the 1st winter/first year beekeeping with a win. Saw dust was dry so moisture didnt get them... they were all in cluster - one hive up in the feeder box the other was just below it. There was some fondant left but not much and they ate out the honey stores. I had 2 deeps and 1 med with one hive and 2 deeps and 2 mediums and there was not a gram of honey left in the one hive and maybe a few ounces left in the other.
Flipping starved to death/froze from what I can tell. Hive was clean and no sign of disease. Total bummed out.
Wife had our first born Jan 5th so life was pretty busy and with the deep snows and super cold temps I couldnt get into the hive to check and add feed, I did not want to have them break cluster. I figured because we let them have their honey and a put in the sugar as a back up they would have enough. Hives were big though an easy 30-40 thousand bees maybe more especially the bigger one I would not doubt it was close to 60K.
"F" if you know what I mean..........
Flipping starved to death/froze from what I can tell. Hive was clean and no sign of disease. Total bummed out.
Wife had our first born Jan 5th so life was pretty busy and with the deep snows and super cold temps I couldnt get into the hive to check and add feed, I did not want to have them break cluster. I figured because we let them have their honey and a put in the sugar as a back up they would have enough. Hives were big though an easy 30-40 thousand bees maybe more especially the bigger one I would not doubt it was close to 60K.
"F" if you know what I mean..........
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
Cavey that is a bummer. What type of bees?
I lost six of 14 hives this past winter. I left full supers of honey on each hive. This is Arkansas. This was not a cold winter. It was extemely wet with some semi warm days. I think the bees became active too early and started building numbers and there was not anything in the wild for them to eat. The hives I lost did not have a drop of honey left. I lost more hives this winter than I have lost in the last three years. My losses usually come late summer. I have only lost one hive at end of winter until this year.
cavey
5 year old buck +
We started with two 10k'ish #3 packages of Italians with a Russian Hybrid Queen in each of the two hives.... One hive on wax foundation the other on plastic. The hive on wax started slow but finished going into the winter the stronger hive, bees on plastic started strong then kind of just slowed to an even pace but were strong going into winter too just a bit less in numbers. They may have requeened in the late fall, both stopped laying for a bit (I heard they sometimes do that) but then started up again so I just didnt hunt her down in either hive. The numbers never seemed to drop so I wasnt sure. I treated with mite strips going into the late fall even though I didnt really have a mite issue. Im thinking I had close to 10lbs of fondant in each - maybe 7 lbs and some pollen patties in each as well. Plus all their honey stores We never took a drop of honey and I had a feeder on for quite a while so they were able to build comb fast early on. Thought I had it all covered.
Any of you use buckfast bees? There is a local source for bees that have been in the business for 25 years and has packages of Italian/buckfast bees with some of their (their supplier Spell bees out of Georgia) breeding stock coming from michigan. Right now they are the cheaper option. I have to call and see if they still have bees to order. I intend to give it one more whirl. I have two hives full of empty clean comb so what the heck right?
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
I know........
every beekeeper i know loses bees from time to time
........Hard not to take it personally......
bill
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
I’ve had good luck with Carnolian queens I’ve heard Italian bees use more resources during the winter, but I don’t have any personal experience.
I’m no expert but a couple recommendations ;
No pollen sub in the hive in early winter it will cause brood rearing and excessive consumption of food stores.
Ditch the MIte away strips its rough on queens. I pull my honey supers and treat with apivar strips late August
mid Sept Feed 3/4 gallons of 2:1 sugar syrup Instead of the using fondant.
Wrap hives in tar paper instead of insulating - it helps the hives warm faster in the sun allowing them to break cluster more often. In winter Insulation tends inhibit solar gain.
Don’t give up! Drawn comb is a big advantage . Keep us posted on how you do.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Im ordering bees tonight; I will do somethings different for sure, the fondant went into the hive late Dec just as an insurance policy. I fed sugar syrup in the fall. I will be thinking how I wrapped them up... They just plain ran out of food. I was just blown away with how much honey they consumed.
I told my wife - that we need to stick with it... we did too many things right to toss in the towel and with every frame drawn out we will be ahead of the game. Im going to set some swarm boxes out too this year. We will see what happens but Im not giving up yet!
I told my wife - that we need to stick with it... we did too many things right to toss in the towel and with every frame drawn out we will be ahead of the game. Im going to set some swarm boxes out too this year. We will see what happens but Im not giving up yet!
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
They are interesting critters always keep you thinking. Once you get the overwintering down you’ll have more bees than you know what to do with during swarm season!
At this point 5 of my 6 production hives are still alive so hopefully spring starts soon so I can stop worrying about them.
I also attempted to over winter a double NUC box but neither side survived (ran out of food) I just wasn’t able to get them to take enough syrup in fall.
At this point 5 of my 6 production hives are still alive so hopefully spring starts soon so I can stop worrying about them.
I also attempted to over winter a double NUC box but neither side survived (ran out of food) I just wasn’t able to get them to take enough syrup in fall.
Headdigger
A good 3 year old buck
My bees are working Henbit, maple and dandelion. I have one hive that is still going through a half gal. of 1:1 syrup every three days. I'm glad that I kept feeding them all winter.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Checked my 2 hives back in NE when I was there a couple of days ago, one had good bee activity the other had less bees coming and going. Didnt pop the covers off because I didnt have my gear with me. I would guess the one hive definitely survived, maybe just bees cleaning stores out of the other?
cavey
5 year old buck +
Bees living on Notre-Dame cathedral roof survive blaze
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47995604
kind of cool bee news...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47995604
kind of cool bee news...
Lost 35% of my hives this past winter. You guys up north worry about the cold killing them - my bees die when it is a semi warm winter and they dont stay in a hive in a cluster. They come out off and on all winter and there is nothing really good for them to feed on and their increased energy requirements cause them to eat up their reserves and starve to death. The remaining hives look good - now.
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
Did you overwinter any hives this year?
