The amount of daylight is lengthening every day and has now reached 10 hours per day. Temperatures have remained mild throughout January and the forecast for the next several weeks does not predict any brutal weather. We beekeepers count this as a blessing.
If your bees are alive you can congratulate yourself on doing a good job of mite control last summer and fall. If not, then you need to figure out ways to improve your mite control plan for next summer.
At this time of year, the bees are eating one to two pounds of honey per week and maintain the core of the cluster at about 64 degrees F. The queen will soon begin laying to start the spring population buildup. When this happens, the bees will increase the core temperature to 92 degrees F to allow development of the brood. This will result in the bees doubling their consumption of honey to two to four pounds per week. To put things in perspective a full deep frame holds about 10 pounds of honey.
Once the queen starts laying the main danger for the hive is starvation. The cluster will absolutely not abandon the brood. Keeping the core temperature at 92F for the brood is job ONE. If there is no honey in the immediate area of the cluster the bees will not move over to eat it if moving affects their ability to maintain the brood temperature.
The cluster is usually in the upper brood box at this time of year. A smart beekeeper can minimize chances of starvation by placing emergency sugar directly above the cluster. Simply lay the sugar disc on the top of the frames. I check on the status of this emergency sugar at about a three (3) week interval until spring. This check also provides an opportunity to add pollen or pollen substitute to the hive. A full patty is not required; ¼ of the patty will do just fine.
I just
completed my end of January hive survival check. This is done partly out of curiosity and
partly to determine if I need to order bees for spring. Presently hive survival is down slightly to 96%,
while winter nuc survival is down to 95%.
This is about where I was at last year after those two -30F nights. While greatly encouraged by these results I
will continue to be vigilant and add emergency sugar to all hives and nucs as
needed in addition to keeping my fingers and toes crossed for good luck. As reported earlier I went into winter
concerned that many hives did not have sufficient food stores. Hence my
efforts to keep the hives fed through the winter.
Other club members are reporting good survival rates also.
Other club members are reporting good survival rates also.
In January I
finished assembly of several additional honey supers and their frames after
running short last summer. In February
my plan is to assemble several more nuc boxes.
These nuc boxes will be made of rough sawn pine. According to Thomas Seely (The Lives of Bees)
the bees will propolize the rough wood, which in turn acts as an anti-microbial
agent and results in healthier bees. I
will compare the nucs with rough sawn pine with others with smooth planed pine
to see if the bees actually propolize the rough swan boards.
Only about 8
more weeks of winter to survive!
