I'm in Virginia not far from Kentucky and overwinter singles on a weaker colony. I run DD because the flow starts in April for buildup and drys up through May. Bees load the boxes in June and the top box is their winter stores. The bees can run out of food in August if you don't build them up with sugar/pollen before the goldenrod.. I did not feed this summer and it was a mistake as a DD turned into a nuc size cluster. I watched the robbing from one hive to the next, nuc boxes absconded from no food and my summer loss was extreme.. Yes, feeding some sugar & pollen patty has a great benefit even if it costs money. *Swarming in May is a problem if you only have a single brood box.
Thank you! It is hard to publish such a silly mistake, but hoped it would be helpful to someone (beyond myself). A very wise beekeeper once told me the difference between a newbee and a master beekeeper is about 1,000 mistakes, so I am counting them down :) Happy Beekeeping!
two Boxes only make sense when you need it to split or to Distanzen the Brood for Swarmcontrol. The Queen don't need the Space of to Boxes. I'm using only one Box since 1989 and I'm very succesfull with it. Greetings from Germany!
Honest analysis will take you a long way. Thank you for sharing
I'm in Virginia not far from Kentucky and overwinter singles on a weaker colony. I run DD because the flow starts in April for buildup and drys up through May. Bees load the boxes in June and the top box is their winter stores. The bees can run out of food in August if you don't build them up with sugar/pollen before the goldenrod.. I did not feed this summer and it was a mistake as a DD turned into a nuc size cluster. I watched the robbing from one hive to the next, nuc boxes absconded from no food and my summer loss was extreme.. Yes, feeding some sugar & pollen patty has a great benefit even if it costs money. *Swarming in May is a problem if you only have a single brood box.
Awesome video! Thank you so much for the candor so we can learn from your experience. Sorry you went through that loss.
Thank you! It is hard to publish such a silly mistake, but hoped it would be helpful to someone (beyond myself). A very wise beekeeper once told me the difference between a newbee and a master beekeeper is about 1,000 mistakes, so I am counting them down :) Happy Beekeeping!
Please sir... question for you...
Bee hive frem how much wire size ....?
two Boxes only make sense when you need it to split or to Distanzen the Brood for Swarmcontrol. The Queen don't need the Space of to Boxes. I'm using only one Box since 1989 and I'm very succesfull with it. Greetings from Germany!
If you were relying on your fall flow to feed over winter why did you not leave some of the spring honey just in case the Goldenrod did not do well
First video of your's that I've seen. Leaving a queen excluder on over winter is an odd choice given your channel name.
I need a package of Italian bees
Package bees