September 3, 2009 I collected a swarm in a tree. I brought it home and wanted to see if it would survive till winter. I had just decided 3 days ago to go ahead and feed it. However, when I went to check before I mixed some sugar syrup, it had finally succumbed to hive beetles. It had lasted about 2 1/2 months. It started out with about one pound of bees.I really didn’t think it could last that long.

I started to feed it about a month ago, but it was doing so well on its own that I decided to wait. My first thought was the right one. Go ahead and feed. Usually your first thought is the correct one. Sometimes, though, you can be mistaken.  I really thought that the colony was not strong enough to survive. The next time I get one that small, I will experiment again and add two frames of brood and feed sugar syrup and see if I can save it.

Experimentation is one of the ways you can learn about bees. Really, that is what the researchers do - experiment. As a beekeeper, you have to be flexible enough to experiment with one or two of your colonies so you can improve your understanding of your bees. Great discoveries usually come by accident, but some are on purpose. You will not learn unless you take some risks.

Not to say, experiment with all your bees at the same time. Just one or two at a time. If your experiment works the way you want it to, then–maybe two or three more to be sure. If you have improved the system then go ahead on and do it to all your bees. That is why only some of my bees have screened bottom boards. I am still having some not so good results with my bees. As you know from previous posts, I have lost most of my bees. Some with and some without screen bottom board. However, circumstances have made my experiments invalid. So I must rebuild my apiaries and start over with my studies.

If I seem to be long winded and not saying much, it is because, at the time of this post, it is 12:15 am and I am tired. In the future I will try to post at a decent time so my ramblings will make some sense to you.

In the meantime, your bees have probably slowed down the egg laying and are just meandering around looking for something to collect. This is the time to check their winter stores. Do they have pollen put up close to the brood area? Do they have honey? The way you can tell if they have honey, if you don’t want to open the hive, is to lift the back of the hive to see if there is any weight. If it is heavy, then there is enough. If it feels light, the you have to open the top board and check the honey super frame by frame. If there is no honey stores, then you have to start feeding and you will have to feed all Winter long. You need to feed 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. This is what we call sustaining syrup. In the Spring (Jan and Feb), you need to feed 1 to 1 sugar syrup. This what we call jump starting the queen into laying lots of eggs. This is a thin syrup sorta like the consistency of nectar.

About the middle of February, stop feeding so the bees will use up the syrup before the Spring honey flow commences. Don’t want to mix sugar syrup with your honey.

Have a good Winter and read, read, read. In the meantime, when the weather is clear and not so cold, go out and clean boxes, frames, and paint, if you so desire, so you can be ready with honey supers for the honey flow in March.

Talk to you later.