Hi Mary,
I'm sure Paul will give you song and verse at the meeting but just a quick
reply, if it's too cold for syrup then you can feed fondant. You can make
your own (see attached recipe), but Thornes sell it in plastic packets....
https://www.thorne.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1665
All you do is cut a circular a hole in the plastic and place it upside down
over the top box top bars inside your quilt box, where you would otherwise
put a syrup feeder. If they need it they'll help themselves.
ttfn
Ann
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Baker
Sent: Friday, November 3, 2017 2:53 PM
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [oxnatbees] Re: Time to remove feeders
Dear Paul
I would like to come to the meeting on 16th. I have some questions about
feeding, which maybe you would be able to answer at the meeting?
1) I only have one box full of bees. I gave them two feeder-fulls, 2kg of
sugar, I think. I stopped because you warned us about the cold - it was the
end of September. Then I was shocked to think I could have carried on into
October it was so mild. Have they had enough? Could I put some food into
the bottom?
2) How do you feed during the winter? I have a spare quilt box as I thought
it would help with feeding.
3) I want to mix some wool that I picked off fences and washed, with the
chippings in the quilt box, would that be all right? I feel the wool would
be warmer but I haven't enough to fill the box.
4) Can you wrap the whole hive up to keep it warm?
Thank you
Mary
On 25 Oct 2017, at 12:58, Paul Honigmann (Redacted sender "paul.honigmann" for DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bees need a minimum ambient temperature to process nectar or syrup into honey, and soon the weather will be too cool for them to make use of syrup. At that point, a feeder in the top of a hive can cause problems, depending on type.
I use top feeders in my Warres, by removing some insulation in the quilt and placing them there. Once the bees have drunk them dry, these are simply an empty volume in the middle of their quilt, and a chimney for losing heat. Also some people find that once they are empty the bees begin building comb in them. So once the bees are finished feeding for the year, it is best to remove them and replace them with insulation again.
This doesn't really apply to other feeder types which are placed inside the hive, so feel free to ignore this advice. Internal feeders may give other problems, but they don't lose heat. I continue to favour the top feeders though because (1) the bees below keep the syrup warm and (2) I can open the hive (roof) and pour in syrup without the bees coming out to defend against me.
Oh, and if you haven't done so yet, it is definitely time to fit mouse guards.
Paul
Attachment:
Fondant recipe.docx
Description: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
