Congratulations Mags, Maxen looks very cute. I doubt I will recognise you
when we next meet. How heavy was he?
Briefly, then -
*For the beginners:* we don't take honey for the first year after putting a
swarm in a hive, so Mags is not asking about taking honey from her hive 2.
These are Warre hives, which are vertical stacks of boxes. During the
summer there are brood in an egg-shaped clump through the top 2 or 3 boxes,
insulated by comb on all sides, so they are in the warm core of the hive.
At the end of summer (now) this region of brood shrinks, and we aim to take
the top box IF they have honey to spare AND it is clear of brood. In
conventional beekeeping, they put a queen excluder mesh between the top
boxes ("supers") and the others to ensure there are no young in the top
boxes and they can take honey at any time of year.
*Basic principle of estimating if a Warre hive's honey is harvestable:* I
had a quick look at my Warres today. One seemed to have a lot of honey
visible through the window of the top box, so I opened the hive (i.e.
removed the top cloth, smoked the bees down a bit, then tipped the box up
to look at the bottom of the combs in it). When I did this I noticed there
were still some capped brood in this box so I put it back. I will look
again next week, hopefully they will have hatched and the box will be clear
of brood. While I was manipulating the hive, I hefted the remaining boxes
and I estimate - simply from the weight, not by any intrusive poking around
- that they currently have a half box or so more honey. I think this will
increase significantly in the next week as the hive is full of bees and
they are super active. This seems to be the pattern in my area, Peak Bee is
at the end of summer to coincide with forage opportunities.
By the way, if you smoke a box and the bees refuse to move, it is probably
because they are nursing a lot of brood in there. I.e. you can tell before
you begin cutting comb up to pull it out and inspect it.
*Mags: specific answers:*
Hive 1
Q1/ - ideally they want one box of honey to get through winter. My colonies
have never used more than half a box, but they are in a very sheltered
location. If yours are in an exposed field then they may need the full box,
but if you add insulation they probably won't.
Q2/ - I always leave one empty box at the bottom of the stack over winter.
I think the bottom of the hive will be cold and draughty, so it is good to
raise the "living area" above this.
Hive 2
Q1/ - I would leave them, one full box above 2 empty ones. Because they are
used to this, they have arranged their comb to suit. Remember that in
Spring they will expand and then you will just have to put boxes back on
the bottom!
Q2/ - As they only occupy one box now, they do not have so many mouths to
feed in winter. So I am pretty sure half a box of honey will be fine. Do
you have a luggage scale you can weigh the boxes with? If not you can get
one from Amazon for £5 to £10. Use it to weigh an empty box, then use it to
weigh the top box. If the top box has 6kg excess weight they should be OK.
A full box would probably weigh an extra 12kg.
In more detail: use the hook of the luggage scale to pull up the bx by the
handles, first on one side then the other. Add the two readings together
and divide by 2. This gives the weight of the box. Often the weight is off
to one side, so you need to do it this way. You only need to pull the box
edge up 1cm or so. Keep a smoker going to drive bees back into the hive, or
they will get squashed when you lower the box back down. This is best done
with a helper, it is trickier than it sounds.
Feeding: if you decide to feed, at this time of year use a strong syrup,
2kg white sugar in 1 litre of warm water. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to
invert the sugar,and micronutrients: some honey from the same apiary (so
the syrup smells of something or the bees may not find it); maybe vitamin C
(ascorbic acid); I use a mini Ashforth feeder in the quilt box. Ask again
for more details if you decide to feed.
Miscellaneous questions:
Q1/ - First, remember insulation gives the bees an *edge*, but is not
absolutely required. I have never added insulation to my Warres, though i
am wondering about doing so now I know more about how it helps. If you
decide to insulate: you can use anything to insulate the hive as long as it
does not get wet. So a sheep fleece would be bad (because wet fleece would
hold cold water) but a polystyrene slab should be OK. Well, I have used
polystyrene slabs on a TBH and the bees survived. You could build a fancy
outer shell like Zuzana, or just wrap a tarpaulin round some boxes as a
wind break. I am hoping someone else wil have an elegant idea here 8)
Q2/ - Apparently woodpeckers do not go for Warres. It is suspected this is
because the wall of a Warre is so thick, they cannot hear the insects
behind the wall. But if you want to add protection, yes, chicken wire is
meant to work well, on most hives, if you place it so the birds cannot
quite reach the hive.
Be aware that the above advice is not entirely reliable. I realise I am
writing "do this, do that" as if it is the definite thing to do. I have 9
years' experience... but collectively this group has maybe 300 years'
experience! Someone else may point out an error or a better answer. Your
circumstances may be different to what I assume. So take my advice above as
a starting point, and modify it with common sense.
Paul
On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 at 17:43, Mags <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello everyone,
I have a few questions as we are about to make our first inspection to our
2 hives this year.
Hive 1:
This is is colony we got from one of our neighbours, we transferred them
from a national hive to a warre and sacrificed the brood as part of
transferring them.
They are currently occupying 3 boxes, it looks like they have started to
eat some of their reserves as we cannot see the combs as well as before
coming up to the observation windows.
Q1/ how do we know they will have enough honey for the winter? This is not
a swarm but a colony, not sure if that makes a difference
Q2/ they have 4 boxes but only occupying 3 shall we remove one box to
avoid empty space to heat up in the winter or shall we leave one empty box
so that they don’t feel overcrowded?
Hive 2:
This is a decent size swarm we caught in early June, they are currently
occupying one full box but are on 3 boxes so 2 are empty
Q1/ shall we remove 1 or 2 boxes so that they have less space to heat up
in the winter
Q2/ how to we know they have enough honey for the winter and if they don’t
when/how much shall we supplement in bee sugar tea? (I know some of you
don’t advocate feeding at all, I’m not for feeding the bees if I can avoid
it but I don’t want to let them die)
Another 2 questions:
1/ regarding winter insulation, what would be the best way to insulate the
hives externally?
2/ I have noticed a lot of woodpeckers around what is the best to keep
them at bay, can they get through chicken wire?
I’ve seen some of this topics have been mentioned before sorry if this is
a repeat.
Just had a new baby boy 4 weeks ago therefore slightly struggling to find
any spare time to summarise all the previous emails sent around before.
Paul you will be happy to know that I’m finally not anymore pregnant!
Quick pic of the baby boy, Maxen below, sorry if this is slightly off
topic :-)
