just found your channel and subscribed it's nice to see someone here in the UK doing bee keeping vids I do like watching the American video's but yours are more relevant with me being in the UK thanks for sharing
Thanks for some very good and informative videos. This time of year, preparing for winter, it would be useful to learn about overwintering nucs versus full size hives. Maybe this could be your next video?
Hi Jakob, Thanks for your comments. The nucs in this video are pretty much ready for Winter, I leave them strapped together and pretty much undisturbed. When I take the feeders off in a week or so I'll open up a nuc and show you what we have, all that remains is to maybe give them a top up of fondant in January if they need it. Stewart
Thanks again. Great videos. Can I just feed until they stop taking it ?? Also thoughts on wrapping with black bubble wrap. Insulated blanket used for curing concrete. Dos and donts. Maybe that's another video.
Hi Jay, Yes you can feed as much as you want but I would check to see what stores they have and judge the amount they still need. There's no point in overfeeding and wasting sugar syrup once they have finished. I always feel my bees prefer a good cold Winter with lots of fresh air flowing around them and not wrapped up in hot and sweaty plastic. The bees will cluster tightly to keep warm and don't need any further insulation. All it will do is create condensation and that in turn may cause the honey stores to go mouldy and then you will get bees with dysentery, not a healthy situation. Feed them well and let them do their own thing. I'll post a video showing my bees in a cluster once we get some cold weather. Stewart
High Stewart, going into my second year as a bee keeper with two hives and another I will populate with an artificial swarm this year hopefully. Your videos are both inspirational and informative so thank you for producing them. I wish I could work out how to reference them in order but I haven't figured that out yet.Up to now I have purchased invertabee or Ambrosia syrup as I thought inverted syrup might be better than a sugar water mix, is there a major difference?Also how long can you keep home made syrup before it goes mouldy and would adding Thymol make much difference.
Hi Robert, Thanks for commenting. I have tried to place some into playlists and have added "episode numbers" to them such as the getting started series. I shall be producing a couple of more such playlists this year so will work on trying to number them accordingly. I haven't found a major difference between the invert syrups and the homemade stuff, this year the bees seem to have managed well on the syrup I made them. Adding thymol is useful if you intend saving any left over syrup, once the bees have it stored it shouldn't go mouldy so I tend to feed without thymol and then dispose of any that I have left over. Many years ago I did add thymol to some syrup and put too much in and killed lots of bees in the feeder so have always been cautious ever since. Stewart
hi , if open the feeder and very little of the food is gone does them mean they have enough food and dispense with feeding or could there be something else up ?? and like wise if the food is all gone you top up but how often would you top up is there a cut off point ??? Thank you ....Tim
Hi Timothy, Thanks for the excellent questions. I have had colonies that don't touch the food because I haven't dribbled any down the central feed hole, once they get an idea of where it is they seem to go for it big style. It may be that they just don't feel a need for any more stores although usually my bees would take the free syrup regardless. Worth checking you have a queenright colony, eggs, larvae and brood in all stages. As far as how much is enough I generally make a judgement on how much to feed them based on what stores they already have and give as much as I feel they need plus a little extra. For me the cut off point is once the temperature drops below my normal inspection levels of around 15 degrees centigrade (Usually late September or early October for me here in Norfolk UK). However if I think the bees need more food and the weather is still reasonably warm I have fed into October. Once the weather turns I then think about using Sugar Fondant as an emergency feed over Winter, I'll be posting a video to show how I do this later in the Autumn. Stewart
Hi Colleen, Thanks for the question. The sugar syrup doesn't freeze during the Winter because the bees have taken it down into their brood nest and the temperature within the brood box is generally high enough to prevent it freezing. Also as the bees move around the nest area to access their food stores the temperature gradually rises so this also makes the food stores warmer and available to the bees. I am of course referring to my particular location here in the UK where the temperature very rarely drops to really cold temperatures. Stewart
Hi, That's a really tricky question to try to answer because there are many different factors that affect the colonies use of Winter stores. I try to use around 15kg for a full size colony and for a nuc I feed them until they either stop taking the syrup or it becomes too cold for them to take any more. Different races of bees use up the feed stores at different rates, some being really frugal while other eat it all really quickly. I try to keep an eye on them and top up with fondant when I think they need it. Stewart
Hey Stewart, thats wild i understand their intake factors will be different hive to hive for sure but only 15kg! lucky you. I have to make sure my hives weigh approximately 50kg going into winter to have ample food stores. thats why i was curious the difference between the consumption of a standard hive and a nuc as i am having a hard time finding any information as to how much less a nuc would consume when compared to a hive i assumed if a percentage or a ratio it could be applied here with some caution of course. cheers
If we're talking about the weight of the hive then it would be much high, I was referring to the amount of food I feed them in terms of sugar syrup. Some get a lot more some less. To give you an example I have two hives just coming out of Winter, one has about 6 seams of bees and is still packed full of useable stores another has 6 seams of bees and is close to starving that I have been feeding since January. One colony is really frugal and one seems to eat everything I can throw at them! Stewart
thats a very interesting situation. for our canadian weather we require very frugal bees and ones that have a high tolerance to dysentry our bees get 5 ot 6 purging runs maximum in the winter. thanks for the info! im really enjoying watching all your videos even if we are separated by and oceans cheers
Hi Tony, The feeders are from a company called Maisemore. I have pased a link below and I'll add a link to the text description above too. www.bees-online.co.uk/detail.asp?ID=378&name=Maisemore-Jumbo-Rapid-Feeder I find them really effective and easy to use as well as being affordable. Stewart
Hi Zeljko Bilan38, Thanks for the comment. Glad you're enjoying the videos. I will be treating hives that have high numbers of Varroa Destructor in Late December with an Oxalic Acid treatment called ApiBioxal and will of course post a video to show what I'm doing. Stewart
Hi Rabbit, No, we don't feed syrup during our cold Winter months. Hopefully the bees have enough stores to last them once we've fed during September but if they do appear light on food we feed the sugar fondant. I will post a video showing how I feed fondant once we get into the colder months of Winter. Cheers Stewart
just found your channel and subscribed it's nice to see someone here in the UK doing bee keeping vids I do like watching the American video's but yours are more relevant with me being in the UK thanks for sharing
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for your comments. More videos to come over the coming months.
Stewart
great stuff ....advice much appreciated by this ancient Aussie amateur. Very well presented . Many thanks
Hi Linton,
Many thanks for your kind comment. Good luck with your beekeeping.
Stewart
Vert interesting series. Thank you.
Hi Craig,
Thanks for your comments.
Stewart
Thanks for some very good and informative videos. This time of year, preparing for winter, it would be useful to learn about overwintering nucs versus full size hives. Maybe this could be your next video?
Hi Jakob,
Thanks for your comments.
The nucs in this video are pretty much ready for Winter, I leave them strapped together and pretty much undisturbed. When I take the feeders off in a week or so I'll open up a nuc and show you what we have, all that remains is to maybe give them a top up of fondant in January if they need it.
Stewart
What month do you add the feeder?
Thanks again. Great videos. Can I just feed until they stop taking it ?? Also thoughts on wrapping with black bubble wrap. Insulated blanket used for curing concrete. Dos and donts. Maybe that's another video.
Hi Jay,
Yes you can feed as much as you want but I would check to see what stores they have and judge the amount they still need. There's no point in overfeeding and wasting sugar syrup once they have finished.
I always feel my bees prefer a good cold Winter with lots of fresh air flowing around them and not wrapped up in hot and sweaty plastic.
The bees will cluster tightly to keep warm and don't need any further insulation. All it will do is create condensation and that in turn may cause the honey stores to go mouldy and then you will get bees with dysentery, not a healthy situation. Feed them well and let them do their own thing.
I'll post a video showing my bees in a cluster once we get some cold weather.
Stewart
High Stewart, going into my second year as a bee keeper with two hives and another I will populate with an artificial swarm this year hopefully. Your videos are both inspirational and informative so thank you for producing them. I wish I could work out how to reference them in order but I haven't figured that out yet.Up to now I have purchased invertabee or Ambrosia syrup as I thought inverted syrup might be better than a sugar water mix, is there a major difference?Also how long can you keep home made syrup before it goes mouldy and would adding Thymol make much difference.
Hi Robert,
Thanks for commenting.
I have tried to place some into playlists and have added "episode numbers" to them such as the getting started series. I shall be producing a couple of more such playlists this year so will work on trying to number them accordingly.
I haven't found a major difference between the invert syrups and the homemade stuff, this year the bees seem to have managed well on the syrup I made them. Adding thymol is useful if you intend saving any left over syrup, once the bees have it stored it shouldn't go mouldy so I tend to feed without thymol and then dispose of any that I have left over. Many years ago I did add thymol to some syrup and put too much in and killed lots of bees in the feeder so have always been cautious ever since.
Stewart
hi , if open the feeder and very little of the food is gone does them mean they have enough food and dispense with feeding or could there be something else up ?? and like wise if the food is all gone you top up but how often would you top up is there a cut off point ??? Thank you ....Tim
Hi Timothy,
Thanks for the excellent questions.
I have had colonies that don't touch the food because I haven't dribbled any down the central feed hole, once they get an idea of where it is they seem to go for it big style. It may be that they just don't feel a need for any more stores although usually my bees would take the free syrup regardless. Worth checking you have a queenright colony, eggs, larvae and brood in all stages.
As far as how much is enough I generally make a judgement on how much to feed them based on what stores they already have and give as much as I feel they need plus a little extra. For me the cut off point is once the temperature drops below my normal inspection levels of around 15 degrees centigrade (Usually late September or early October for me here in Norfolk UK). However if I think the bees need more food and the weather is still reasonably warm I have fed into October.
Once the weather turns I then think about using Sugar Fondant as an emergency feed over Winter, I'll be posting a video to show how I do this later in the Autumn.
Stewart
Does the sugar water freeze during the winter?
Hi Colleen,
Thanks for the question. The sugar syrup doesn't freeze during the Winter because the bees have taken it down into their brood nest and the temperature within the brood box is generally high enough to prevent it freezing. Also as the bees move around the nest area to access their food stores the temperature gradually rises so this also makes the food stores warmer and available to the bees. I am of course referring to my particular location here in the UK where the temperature very rarely drops to really cold temperatures.
Stewart
Hey Stewart,
How many Kg of Feed/Weight does a full colony require to survive in comparison to about how many KG does an overwintering nuc require?
Hi,
That's a really tricky question to try to answer because there are many different factors that affect the colonies use of Winter stores. I try to use around 15kg for a full size colony and for a nuc I feed them until they either stop taking the syrup or it becomes too cold for them to take any more. Different races of bees use up the feed stores at different rates, some being really frugal while other eat it all really quickly. I try to keep an eye on them and top up with fondant when I think they need it.
Stewart
Hey Stewart,
thats wild i understand their intake factors will be different hive to hive for sure but only 15kg! lucky you. I have to make sure my hives weigh approximately 50kg going into winter to have ample food stores. thats why i was curious the difference between the consumption of a standard hive and a nuc as i am having a hard time finding any information as to how much less a nuc would consume when compared to a hive i assumed if a percentage or a ratio it could be applied here with some caution of course.
cheers
If we're talking about the weight of the hive then it would be much high, I was referring to the amount of food I feed them in terms of sugar syrup. Some get a lot more some less. To give you an example I have two hives just coming out of Winter, one has about 6 seams of bees and is still packed full of useable stores another has 6 seams of bees and is close to starving that I have been feeding since January. One colony is really frugal and one seems to eat everything I can throw at them!
Stewart
thats a very interesting situation. for our canadian weather we require very frugal bees and ones that have a high tolerance to dysentry our bees get 5 ot 6 purging runs maximum in the winter. thanks for the info! im really enjoying watching all your videos even if we are separated by and oceans cheers
Where do you get the feeders?
Hi Tony,
The feeders are from a company called Maisemore. I have pased a link below and I'll add a link to the text description above too.
www.bees-online.co.uk/detail.asp?ID=378&name=Maisemore-Jumbo-Rapid-Feeder
I find them really effective and easy to use as well as being affordable.
Stewart
You are great,l am watching you from Croatia.What about varroa destructor?
Hi Zeljko Bilan38,
Thanks for the comment. Glad you're enjoying the videos.
I will be treating hives that have high numbers of Varroa Destructor in Late December with an Oxalic Acid treatment called ApiBioxal and will of course post a video to show what I'm doing.
Stewart
Do u feed like this in the cold winter?
Hi Rabbit,
No, we don't feed syrup during our cold Winter months. Hopefully the bees have enough stores to last them once we've fed during September but if they do appear light on food we feed the sugar fondant. I will post a video showing how I feed fondant once we get into the colder months of Winter.
Cheers
Stewart
Looking forward to it. Thanks