FALL FEEDING

By now you should have treated your hives to control varroa mites.  If not, get cracking!  So on to the next fall beekeeping task.

 

In central Wisconsin bees need the equivalent of 2 full deeps (10 frame equipment) of honey to survive the winter.  For those of you who run 8 frame equipment the equivalent is about 2 deeps and a medium.  Many colonies fall short of this goal.   Startup colonies or hives with late captured swarms frequently haven’t reached this point.  So each hive should be assessed in late August.  In our area the bees are no longer making any honey surplus.  Sure they are hard at work foraging for nectar and pollen, but there simply isn’t the quantity necessary for them to make any surplus after satisifying their daily consumption. 

 A good time to assess the food situation is when treating for mites.  When the 2 deeps are separated to insert the mite treatment the weight (heft) of the upper box can be evaluated.  Also if you see that any of the outer frames are not drawn and filled with honey then it is time to feed.  NOTE: Those of you that treat with oxalic acid vapor (and therefore are not splitting the two deeps ) will need to split the deeps anyway to assess the situation. 

If in doubt, the best recommendation is to feed. (I automatically feed all startup hives)  Fall feeding is usually done with a 2 to 1 sugar to water solution.  Internal or top feeders are recommended.  This tends to keep the feed warmer, which facilitates the bee’s uptake. Using entrance feeders is not recommended.  First they do not hold the necessary volume of feed.  Second, the feed cools down rapidly at night.  

Feeding should also be completed before the end of September.  The bees are reluctant to transfer cold feed.  The colder nights in October cool the feed which inhibits the transfer of the feed into the hive.  October daytime temperatures usually do not warm the feed sufficiently.  This is even true for internal feeders.

It is not uncommon for a hive to quickly pull in 5 gallons of syrup.   The bees will evaporate the water from the syrup to about a 4 to 1 sugar to water concentration before capping the storage cells.  

A 50 lbs. bag of sugar costs about $22 and is usually sufficient to fall feed two hives.  So for about $11 of sugar you can ensure against winter starvation of your hive.  Compare that against the cost of a new package of bees; $120 per package. 

An article about winter emergency feeding will be published shortly.