It’s late winter and like many beekeepers I start to get a little nervous about what may be happening inside my hives. Storms Ciara, Dennis and this weekend Jorge have made just earning a living for myself a challenge with beekeeping definitely taking a back seat. The constant high winds and heavy rainfall of the last few weeks has meant no sign of any flying bees when I glance towards the apiary each evening as I return home. Whilst of course flying bees doesn’t necessarily mean all is well it does at least offer some reassurance there is still some life in the box. Opening the hives just hasn’t been an option for the last few weeks with single digit temperatures between the storms. Ideally, I won’t open the hive below 15 degrees although once above 10 degrees I may take my chance for a very quick peek if absolutely necessary.
It was very different in early January you may recall. The first few weeks of the New Year saw double digit temperatures for several days at a time with the bees flying regularly. This amount of activity in itself can cause problems so early in the year. The bees taking their chance to toilet flight will also start looking for forage to replenish their stores. Of course, there is virtually no forage available for them before the snowdrops and aconites start to open. The bees then find themselves burning much more energy in flying than they would be doing if the weather was colder and they had remained clustered in the hive for warmth. The resultant increase in food required can easily result in a hive running out of stores well before there is spring forage to be collected. Starvation is a very real possibility.
I like to start the winter with a full super of honey left on each hive. This should be plenty to keep a strong colony fed until spring. However even with this level of stores in autumn it is still worth a quick check during any winter warm spell to check the food is still available to the bees. It is not unknown for the bees clustered in a ball towards the centre of the hive to consume all the honey in the centre frames of the super creating a gap around them and the full frames towards the sides. They may then run out of food unaware there are further stores in the side frames. Rearranging the frames to bring more stores to towards the centre of the hive can save them from starving to death even whilst surrounded by food.
No matter how well prepared your hives were for winter there is always the possibility of losing a colony that has survived all winter to starvation as spring approaches, especially if a mild winter has seen them more active than usual.
A quick weight check of my supers is usually enough to tell if I need to take any action. No need to start stripping the hive and lifting out frames. Just a quick lift of the super on a mild day will give me an idea what stores are left for the colony. Nice and heavy with honey and I’m happy. If it’s feeling a little light and empty it’s time to think about adding a supplementary feed.
Winter feeding for me is always fondant. Whilst summer feeds – rarely needed with a strong colony but often useful with a weaker one, a split colony or a collected swarm – are normally a sugar syrup. The bees evaporate the water off the sugar syrup in summer to access the glucose for energy. In winter the colder temperatures make evaporation impossible meaning a colony could still starve to death even with a feeder full of syrup on the hive. Cheap cake makers fondant is my normal winter feed. Normally cheaper to buy ready made than to make myself. A company called Bako make a good one in the UK for commercial bakers and is available mail order in 12.5 kilo blocks. I live quite close to one of their depots, so collection is possible for me. This year however I’m currently only looking at one colony that is getting low on stores, so I’ve bought a small quantity of baking fondant from my local supermarket.
Fondant does tend to dry out fairly quickly making it more difficult for the bees to access. I usually leave mine wrapped in either the poly bag it was bought in or wrapped in a little cling film with an access hole cut in it. It is then simply placed over the whole in the hive top board for the bees to take as they need. No need to open the hive which would let the colonies valuable heat reserve out. A quick and simple job that takes away the worry of starvation until the weather improves and the bees can get stuck into harvesting all the wonderful spring forage that will soon be appearing.
