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Post by waynesgarden on Mar 29, 2016 14:20:13 GMT -5
I have a different philosophy as to overwintering. While I know commercial beekeepers that start new with packages each year, I do my best to prepare my bees for winter survival.
Winters were a bit harsh when I kept bees in Maine and I often had twenty or more hives make it through the winter if properly prepared and fed if necessary. I treat for mites early so as to let them build up for winter as strong as possible. I leave a lot of the later goldenrod honey for their winter stores. I reduce the entrance, close up the screened bottom board and when I was living in Maine, I would loosely wrap the hives with tar paper. Since I've been in PA, I haven't bothered with wrapping. I check them when we get a break in the weather and if the hives feel like they are getting light, I feed them dry sugar on top of the frames. This year, with the warm fall, they burned through most of their honey quickly and all got about 5 to 10 lbs of sugar as supplemental feed. Though honey is preferable and more "natural" than sugar, I would rather have live bees than natural, dead bees come spring.
I have 6 hives and a nuc (a mini-hive) come through the winter here in PA, out of the 9 that I had last fall. Two didn't make it but they were the weaker of the hives going into winter.
The bees I raised last year and overwintered will explode in population in the coming month or so. This not only replaces the old workers, but allows proven, strong queens to continue to reproduce for another year. The overwintered hives usually build up so fast that splitting the hives early in the year provides me with even more hives. So instead of starting with one package, an overwintered hive can turn into two or three hives producing honey that year. I think it's worth the effort.
Wayne
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Post by brownrexx on Mar 29, 2016 17:39:08 GMT -5
I have the same philosophy as Wayne. We don't let our bees die and just buy new ones.
We only have one hive but it made it through the winter and we will divide it into 2 hives this spring.
We place bales of straw on the upwind side of our hive in the Fall to protect it from the strong Winter winds and we started feeding our bees in the warm days of early March.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 1, 2016 8:45:31 GMT -5
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Post by James on Apr 26, 2016 17:00:16 GMT -5
Here at this elevation of 5000 ft we can get some real cold and weird winter weather at times. This past winter there at the first of February, we had ten days straight of near zero weather. No warm up. This is what killed the bees. When it is cold like that they cluster up tight to preserve heat in the cluster and eat honey and vibrate a bit to generate heat, but they will not move onto new honey when it is severe cold and if they run out of honey in the cluster they starve to death, and freeze. If the weather will warm up a little every four or five days, the bees will move onto new honey, but can't move when its bad cold. What I found when I opened the boxes was a cluster of dead bees surrounded by honey.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 26, 2016 18:14:21 GMT -5
We opened our hive this week too and found that they are looking extremely healthy with lots of new and developing bees. I have a box ready in case they swarm so that we can capture it and start another hive.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Apr 27, 2016 19:09:42 GMT -5
Do any of you make beeswax for use in cosmetics? If you do, what's involved in doing that?
I've been thinking about getting some bees so I could make beeswax for lotions, especially lip balm. It's sometimes hard to find good varieties that don't have petrolatum in them. Yuck.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 28, 2016 8:40:20 GMT -5
No we do not really utilize the beeswax. We made some beeswax candles one year and I always gave some to my Dad for use in woodworking but that's all. I think that Dad said that he used the wax on screws and that it really made a difference. He loved it.
I do love the smell of beeswax.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Apr 28, 2016 12:27:19 GMT -5
Is the beeswax used by the bees, i.e., like the honey which they produce?
I hadn't thought of using it on screws, or other hardware type applications but that's a good suggestion. I always hated the commercial solvents and the strong odor.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 28, 2016 14:24:36 GMT -5
Is the beeswax used by the bees, i.e., like the honey which they produce? I don't think that it has any function other than making cells which hold the honey sealed inside.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Apr 29, 2016 10:13:38 GMT -5
Thanks, Rexx! Beekeeping is really a fascinating occupation.
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Post by James on May 17, 2016 10:18:20 GMT -5
Quote: "James, I've been wondering how you protect your hives during the winter."
For many years I tried all sorts of things to get the bees through winter. In this harsh environment at 5000 feet elevation we have tough winters and No matter how I tried I always had losses. Sometimes 100% loss. Finally I decided to heck with wintering bees. I will buy packages in the Spring and push them for a box of honey. Then let them see if they can make winter. If they do fine, but if not I have my money back plus some. If you keep bees in the standard double box way, one of those boxes will be full of honey going into winter. That is 60 pounds of honey. At $6 per pound that is $360. A package costs $90. Why winter bees? Sell that honey and buy packages.
Bees come and go.
The equipment will last a long time if cared for. It is quite expensive to get the equipment, but as noted it lasts a long time.
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Post by James on May 17, 2016 10:22:25 GMT -5
"We opened our hive this week too and found that they are looking extremely healthy with lots of new and developing bees. I have a box ready in case they swarm so that we can capture it and start another hive."
Brownrexx, I find it best to check those over-wintering hives every ten days and cut queen cells. Keep them from swarming, then when you see clover bloom, add a super and let them make you some honey!
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Post by James on May 17, 2016 10:29:46 GMT -5
Beeswax? As I extract honey the cappings are cut off and sometimes a frame gets broken or damaged. When all done I put the cappings in a box with a screen bottom and let the honey drain off. Then the cappings go in a pan and this pan in another larger pan of water and heated. Kinda like a double boiler? Any way, you can't submit the wax to a direct hot plate or flame, it is after all flammable, so you use the hot water to melt it, then dip it off and pour it into molds and make little wax ingots. I use regular cupcake papers in a cupcake tray for the molds.
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Post by brownrexx on May 17, 2016 14:01:06 GMT -5
Brownrexx, I find it best to check those over-wintering hives every ten days and cut queen cells. Keep them from swarming, then when you see clover bloom, add a super and let them make you some honey! Actually I was expecting them to swarm and I have a box ready to collect the swarm. We are down to only one hive and could use another one.
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Post by James on May 22, 2016 10:38:53 GMT -5
You could divide the colony. Can you get mated queens from your bee supplier? That is a good way to divide using a mated queen or maybe even two, and split it three ways. Leave the old queen with the one box. You can split once you have sealed queen cells and put the new queen cells in the division. She will hatch and go on mating flights. It takes some time though before she will begin laying.
The problem with swarming, is sometime the swarm gets away and you don't get it captured. Best of luck.
I still say, keep that strong one together and let it make you some honey. Buy a package, or two, for the increase.
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