Posted: 11/19/2009 6:56:29 PM EDT
| If you were a beekeeper, you'd be lifting the back end of hives to see how heavy they were, and feeding dry sugar if they felt a little low. You would look on the front of hives to check for soft stool which might indicate nosema or dysentary. (bees eliminate waste outside the hive, very sanitary little creatures.) On warm days when the termperature was above 47 degrees, youcould open up the hives and take a peek inside. You might also sniff around the hive to see how healthy they were. I'll try to post a follow up in December.... |
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If you were a beekeeper, you'd be lifting the back end of hives to see how heavy they were, and feeding dry sugar if they felt a little low. You would look on the front of hives to check for soft stool which might indicate nosema or dysentary. (bees eliminate waste outside the hive, very sanitary little creatures.) On warm days when the termperature was above 47 degrees, youcould open up the hives and take a peek inside. You might also sniff around the hive to see how healthy they were. I'll try to post a follow up in December.... When sniffing around the hive, what particular smells are you looking for? |
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If you were a beekeeper, you'd be lifting the back end of hives to see how heavy they were, and feeding dry sugar if they felt a little low. You would look on the front of hives to check for soft stool which might indicate nosema or dysentary. (bees eliminate waste outside the hive, very sanitary little creatures.) On warm days when the termperature was above 47 degrees, youcould open up the hives and take a peek inside. You might also sniff around the hive to see how healthy they were. I'll try to post a follow up in December.... When sniffing around the hive, what particular smells are you looking for? Some hive smells: alarm pheremone smells like spicy bananas, or citrus and bananas. Brood growing in the cells smells like awesome yeast bread baking. You can also smell the various flower nectars curing inthe cells. If the bees are sick, often that will have it's own smell. |
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A healthy beehive has a particular, warm, (and this is sort of a silly metaphor way of speaking of it––) "welcoming" smell. It is unlike any other smell I have experienced, though the yeasty bread smell is probably the closest approximation. Not baking bread, but the yeasty smell in a kitchen where bread is baked. It's sort of a combination of yeastiness, outdoors, and honey-sweetness all rolled into one whiff.
I think you have to be around a healthy hive to figure out that smell. Then you notice when it's not present. However in Kentucky, it is cool enough most days in November that the smell is somewhat diminished. The smell is easier to notice when it's warm. I guess it's the scents of the hive volatolizing. Also the bees are working harder to ventilate the hive when it's warm, which will make the smells waft further from the hive. I have seen kids of beekeepers run up to the back of a beehive on a warm day, and stick their noses against the cracks to get a whiff. |
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If you were a beekeeper, you'd be lifting the back end of hives to see how heavy they were, and feeding dry sugar if they felt a little low. .... Explain this, I have never had to do this but 2 of my six are very low. I have been using sugar water. I have never had to feed the bees in the fall in the past. My last 3 swarms came after july and are not well prepaed for winter. I know 1 hive only has 1 deep so it will have to be given "welfare" this winter. I am going to put some strawbales around them as a wind block. |
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I feed sugar water 1:1 until it freezes, and feed dry ONLY if it's too cold to feed the liquid. Sounds like FordGuy is feedling liquid as a matter of course in the fall. You can feed dry granulated sugar in the hives, and I'm assuming that's what he's doing.
Here we use that only for emergency feeding when it's too cold for wet. But it sounds like you're set up for an emergency. If you can still feed liquid, feed them some very thick sugar water. I will leave FordGuy to talk about feeding dry, as I don't use that regularly. |
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Hey Dux...as they say, a swarm in july isn't worth a fly.....(because they don't have time to build up.)
I feed liquid on weak hives until the average temp starts hovering around 47 degrees. This is the temp that bees start to cluster. The enemy of bees in winter is too much moisture. This can lead to nosema and other foul problems. So it is at this point that I just pour dry sugar directly on top the frames, in one of my home made dry sugar feeders. This aint pretty or fancy or scholarly - but it can save a hive from starvation, and these days they cost too much to lose. |
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Dry sugar would be better than pulling a frame out and feeding sugar water inside the hive? If so then I will pull the external feeder and not purchase any internal feeders. Thanks whoa there...that's not what I said.  this time of year, dry is better. Starting in april, until about Nov 1st, liquid feed IS better as they can begin to cure it to store in the cells. So go ahead and buy your liquid feeder for next year, just don't be tempted to add it to the hive until it is warmer. The reason I get away from liquid feed in winter is too much moisture in the hive!!! That is all. And I use screened bottom boards.
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Dry sugar would be better than pulling a frame out and feeding sugar water inside the hive? If so then I will pull the external feeder and not purchase any internal feeders. Thanks whoa there...that's not what I said. this time of year, dry is better. Starting in april, until about Nov 1st, liquid feed IS better as they can begin to cure it to store in the cells. So go ahead and buy your liquid feeder for next year, just don't be tempted to add it to the hive until it is warmer. The reason I get away from liquid feed in winter is too much moisture in the hive!!! That is all. And I use screened bottom boards.I have an external feeder for each hive. Whenever I got another hive I bought another feeder ( one for each hive I own). What I meant was the internal (division board feeder) for winter use since the bees don't want to come out to eat because it's cold. I use the sugar water during warm weather but didn't know that I could use dry in the winter. I see the advantages of dry in winter. This year is my first for Screen Bottom Boards. Do you slide something inside it like foam to restrict air flow and drafts or just leave it open like the summer. I did restrict the hive entrance to a few inches in length. |
| well I leave my SBB open all winter, but up there in IL your rules may be different - that may be a question for a local beekeeper. As far as restricting hive entrance, the main reason for that is to keep out field mice. mouse can destroy a hive over winter and in the spring when you open the hive, nothing but rot, decay, foul odor from a family of mice. we call them mouse guards, but make sure they are on!!! |
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Dry sugar would be better than pulling a frame out and feeding sugar water inside the hive? If so then I will pull the external feeder and not purchase any internal feeders. Thanks whoa there...that's not what I said. this time of year, dry is better. Starting in april, until about Nov 1st, liquid feed IS better as they can begin to cure it to store in the cells. So go ahead and buy your liquid feeder for next year, just don't be tempted to add it to the hive until it is warmer. The reason I get away from liquid feed in winter is too much moisture in the hive!!! That is all. And I use screened bottom boards.I have an external feeder for each hive. Whenever I got another hive I bought another feeder ( one for each hive I own). What I meant was the internal (division board feeder) for winter use since the bees don't want to come out to eat because it's cold. I use the sugar water during warm weather but didn't know that I could use dry in the winter. I see the advantages of dry in winter. This year is my first for Screen Bottom Boards. Do you slide something inside it like foam to restrict air flow and drafts or just leave it open like the summer. I did restrict the hive entrance to a few inches in length. I know beekeepers in Canada who leave their SBBs open all winter. PLUS, mice don't like the SBBs....they just won't build nests in there on the screens with no bottom the way they will in a closed hive. AND the SBBs improve airflow to help with the condensation problem. YOu might ask around in your area to see what people do. Your County ag agent may know, or your state apiarist will tell you straight up what other beekeepers are or are not doing successfully in your area. Services from them are free. I don't know if you have condensation issues up there the way we do here, but that moisture building up inside a closed-up hive, then raining on the bees means dead bees. You do not ever want wet bees in the winter. It wigged me out to leave the bottom of my hives open in winter the first time, but they did just fine. I think they are more disease free with the open bottoms. kitties |
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SBB's open? Open how?
Solid Bottom Boards? I had kept bees since 13, but since college I've been having. 23 and getting my hives back to producing. I have 2 strong ones and one slightly weak one with SHB, all hives have a full super of honey and some in the the brood boxes. |
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Sure, I like this one.
http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/ and http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/equipment/HivePlans.pdf right now, I'd just build a deep, a bottom board, and a cover. Don't worry about supers your first year. also, you don't need a hive stand - cinder blocks work fine. if i recall, frozenny had plans for a top bar hive - but for top bar, there really is no standard as long as you obey the rules of "bee space." I recommend people build langstroth as 90% fo beekeepers also have langstroth hives and so your stuff is interchangeable with store bought stock. |
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I got some pics somewhere, but if you google "langstroth hive" it should bring back some pics. There is also a "top bar hive" you might find. Know of any downloadable plans for building your own hives that you would endorse? Beesource is the place to go. There is just about anything on that sight that you would/could build for yourself. And a few things you should just hang it up and buy. But still, they are there. I don't like the arguing, so I don't go there any more. It's a bit like General Discussion (though not as nasty) in that if you ask ten beekeepers, you'll get eleven opinions. And that is not an exaggeration. The bullshit levels in the discussion forums can get really high. Too high for my tolerance. I also second the recommendation to build to Langstroth specs. You have a lot of options for equipment purchase or plans to fit the stuff you have if you build to these specs. Strict adherance to bee space will save any person a lot of trouble. kitties |
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Sure, I like this one. http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/ and http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/equipment/HivePlans.pdf Thanks, I printed both links. My work list for this Winter is already ridiculously huge and if I build beehives before building some more bookshelves for the house, Mrs. Feral will likely have me living in the barn. So I may suck it up and just buy hives to get started. 
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one thing that needs to be mentioned: If you expect to purchase your bees next year: ORDER THEM NOW. The guy I order from (Tubbs in MS) is taking orders starting in January. I'll be bugging him on New Year's day 
I may call back as I only asked about queens and I think I want to get a nuc as well. |
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I got three of these traps/SBB's: http://www.freemanbeetletrap.com/about_the_trap
I have one on a hive already and it does get the SHB's I also ordered the 4 russian queens and the nuc I'll need this spring.
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Sure, I like this one. http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/10-frame-langstroth-barry-birkey/ and http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/equipment/HivePlans.pdf Thanks, I printed both links. My work list for this Winter is already ridiculously huge and if I build beehives before building some more bookshelves for the house, Mrs. Feral will likely have me living in the barn. So I may suck it up and just buy hives to get started.
Feral, if you are employed at present, running your farmette and raising your kids and loving your wife AND doing Langstroth hives, your time to cut out all those little pieces and assemble them is probably worth more than the $150 per hive you'll pay to buy them. Just sayin. Kitties |
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Quoted: Feral, if you are employed at present, running your farmette and raising your kids and loving your wife AND doing Langstroth hives, your time to cut out all those little pieces and assemble them is probably worth more than the $150 per hive you'll pay to buy them. Just sayin. I'm pretty much buried in work. "In the weeds" I believe is the expression.  The local beekeeper's association does a two-weekend "short course" that has been highly recommended to me. Either Mrs. Feral or myself would like to try to take that probably next Fall (when I WON'T be cutting firewood.) I'm not averse to buying hives.....but maybe I'll have more time when I have firewood processing off the table. |