To the bees, it is now Winter. It is time for them to shut down on brood rearing. Time to kick out the drones. Time to vegetate for a while. Time to eat some of the honey stores they have put up for hard and cold times.

Do they have any honey? Oh my! Did you take too much honey away from them? Be sure to check. You may have to make some sugar water to feed or buy some HFCS to feed them. oh!, and by the way, remove your queen excluder, especially here in the northern part of Florida.

If you have to feed them and want to make some sugar syrup, then you need to feed 2:1. That means to mix 2 parts of sugar to 1 part of water. This is what they will eat for energy to keep warm and to keep what little brood they have to raise warm. If you are feeding syrup, then when it is a warm day, 65 degrees or higher, open up and check the brood area to see if there is any pollen. If there is just a little to none, then order some pollen substitute to start feeding in the latter part of January. The bees need to feed the larvae pollen in order for them to grow. January is the time to raise lots of bees to get ready for the spring honey flow.

Make sure that they have a bountiful supply of water, as they mix pollen, honey, and water to make bee bread (which is, in my opinion, baby food). I am sure there are others out there that will disagree with me, but remember I told you at the beginning that I was telling you how I work my bees and this is what I am doing.

If you have any questions, then by all means, ASK. There are no stupid questions! If you knew the answers, then you wouldn’t be asking. Ok? Get ready to read during the next couple of months and plan what you are going to do in the spring. Planning is a vital part of beekeeping.

Talk to you later.