Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Uwe in USA]

Hi all, great to see nice weather and I was anxious to see my bees coming out because we had such nice weather a couple weeks ago. But nothing, so I thought they died. I also couldn't see any bees from the observation window. Finally I saw movement around the entrences off all three hives that I have in my back yard. All with different amount of activity. So I fed them syrup one to one ratio. Today is nice and it will get cold tomorrow and Sunday with snow and temperatures going down to 28 F. do I need to be concerned. I presume the bees know what to do. Sorry but I am still learning.
Regards

Uwe

[Barbara]

Hi

Pleased to hear your bees have made it this far.

Not a good idea to be feeding them syrup when the weather is still cold and wintery, particularly 1:1 syrup as it produces a lot of condensation in the hive which can chill the bees. It also stimulates them to produce brood but if they can't get out to forage, because of a cold spell it can actually lead to them starving, so possibly counter productive.

In my opinion it's far better to give them fondant if you think they are short on supplies until Spring is really here and the flowers are producing a nectar flow which will enable them to ramp up brood production and keep them in harmony with their environment.

[Trip]

I wouldn't worry about feeding them the 1-1 syrup. Your cold weather is a day or two only event and you will be back to glorious spring weather in a couple of days. I would wait on feeding them more until you can confirm they actually need it. Your temps will be in the 60s&70s this week and you should be able to do a quick inspection for stores then. But I suspect your spring weather will be permanent by then and they will take care of themselves.

[Uwe in USA]

Thanks, I was just searching on the internet and found the bee calendar and in march it says that the bees are now probably running out of Honey. So I thought just to be on the save side I fed them some syrup. just to give them some help to start again. because my two bee hives I had the year before which I lost I didn't take any honey last year from the new colonies so they would survive the winter, which they have. When is it the best time to harvest?

I also build another hive incase they are swarming and I can catch them.
Regards
uwe

[Barbara]

You can harvest as soon as there is a good nectar flow and they can replace what you take.