Hive Talk January 2022

Hive Talk - January 2022! Happy New Year!
Baby it’s cold outside…….to say the least! I hope that the insulation we provided around the hives, and the honey stores we left in the hives were sufficient enough to help the honey bees wait out the long winter days.
During these cold months the ‘cluster’ of bees rotate from the centre outwards to the edge of the cluster to maintain heat around their queen. Much like the buffalo herds, or large groups of animals trying to maintain the heat and survive these cold winter months.
When the ambient temperature rises during a break in the cold the area around the cluster enlarges and allows the bees to move to another area in the hive where there is a new food source. There has to be a sufficient number of bees to be able to do this. If the cluster is too small, and unable to produce enough heat, they will starve as they will not be able to move the cluster to new food sources. This would be one reason why the hive fails going into the spring. When we wrapped up the hives last fall we weighed the brood boxes by lifting them. When I couldn’t lift the box it would have been more than 60 lbs for one hive. Sufficient food, but not all the hives went into the winter with strong numbers. I guess we’ll see in the spring. As soon as the weather warms up to 10 deg C I will open up the hives and give them a fondant patty. It is literally a ‘sugar’ patty. This will feed the bees until I introduce the ‘pollen’ patty in March/April. By feeding them fondant, it will only nourish them. To give them a pollen patty, this will encourage the queen bee to start her brood.
This will be our 5th year with honeybees and I haven’t even digested an adequate amount of knowledge, or experience, to call myself a ‘beekeeper’. I am striving for this, but it will take time and patience. There is only so much you can do in a season. Everyday is an adventure in the world of the ‘Apis Mellifera’.

Until next month, Bee safe. zenabshoney.com Susan & David Pidlisny