Post by danfan46My three hives have survived the winter (unusually long for this area (Swedish west coast))
What type of boxes do you use in Sweden? I kept bees in Britain during
the 1970's and they had three different types there.
Post by danfan46salix should be in bloom any day now.
Willow trees?
Post by danfan46I'm considering feeding them 2 kg sugar just too be on the safe side.
I usually always do this here [in Texas panhandle] in January and
February. The reason being that even if the bees have plenty of stores
it tends to crystallize quickly making it difficult to be utilized
when it's needed later in winter and early spring.
I feed around 23 Kilos a hive in stages of good weather using a 19
liter bucket*, i.e. 11 kilos of sugar with the addition of water to
fill the bucket. I also add 5cc of 2% per volume thymol tincture
solution to the bucket, this retards any mold growth or fermentation
if the bucket sets around a week.
*you will need to devise a 'raft' or method to prevent unnecessary bee
drownings. I use a thin sheet of expanded polyurethane foam created for
shipping and padding. I cut a circle of this the size of the bottom of
the bucket then float on top of that a round piece of wire grid with a
14mm mesh. This rig keeps the poly foam flat on the syrup allowing the
bees to walk on the top of the syrup with their only access being a
thin space between the bucket and the floating top. This works well for
other things like excessive evaporation and high winds something we
have a lot of here.
I was going along the river road between Presidio and Lejitas once which
follows the Rio Grande [Rio Bravo if you're a Mexican] and some
commercial bee operation from Colorado had set out clusters of hives
along a twenty mile stretch. It was early in the Spring about this
time of year actually when the Tamarisk begins to bloom. These bees were
being fed syrup in open 55 gallon barrels with the top of the barrels
filled with a layer of white styrofoam packing peanuts of which a lot
were scattered about. I suppose they're still there.
This sort of feeding is good for morale and generates a lot of well
being in the hive. I know this because they told me. ahhh, just
jokin'.
Post by danfan46Last year one of my hives dissipated in the middle of April. I hope
that won't happen this year.
Did you examine the hive during this time? What did it look like in
there? Do they have the equivalent of an Agriculture Extension Service
in Sweden, a knowledgeable person would come out and have a look?
Asking the extension service around here about bee problems would get
you nowhere. The person you talked to might 'moonlight' for an Ag
supply and offer you 30 gallons of 'roundup' but they don't know bees.
You would be referred to Entomology at Texas A&M hundreds of miles
away. You could maybe send a sample and wait six months and
never hear anything. Consequently you have to be your own diagnostic
service for bee ailments.
--
CK
