Winter Beekeeping
Moisture Control in The Hives: A Four-Season Approach
We work with the seasons and the bees’ own incredible ability to self-regulate to keep heat, cold, and moisture in check. While it is useful to look at how bees live “in the wild” to understand their natural preferences, it’s good to remember that honey bees are adaptable and live all over the world, in all climates.
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Do My Honey Bees Have Nosema?
Honey bee dysentery is often confused with Nosema disease, so when beekeepers see feces on or near a hive, they automatically think the worst. But several recent papers have reiterated that dysentery is caused by an excess of moisture in honey bee feces. It may occur simultaneously with Nosema or not, but the two conditions are not related.
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Can I Feed Frames of Honey Back to My Colony?
I live in the NC Piedmont. I prepared my hives for winter last Sunday by removing the top supers and adding a quilt frame and a candy board. These are two first-year hives. The honey was not capped last month. This month it’s all capped including eight full frames in the supers and four that are about half full.
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What Bugs Your Bees in Winter? Know the Lineup of Beekeeping Pests.
Add to Favorites Even before we open our first beehive, we are warned about pests that may live within. Small hive beetles, wax moths, and varroa mites are things we dread, so early in our training …
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I Found Dead Moth Worms on My Bottom Board
I was out inspecting the bottom board of my strongest hive. I found 3 dead moth worms. The hive is three deep and packed. Is there anything I can do / should do this late in the season to treat? I did the OAV treatment this fall from your tutorial and it worked great.
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What’s Wrong with my Homemade Fondant?
Beekeepers add vinegar to fondant recipes under the mistaken idea that you need to invert the sucrose for the bees. This is not true. Most nectar is mainly sucrose, but the instant the bees ingest it, their saliva breaks it down into glucose and fructose.
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The Importance of Winterizing Beekeeping Equipment
Add to Favorites By Alexis Griffee, Florida Winterizing beekeeping equipment, while the hive sleeps, avoids problems when the weather warms up. As the cooler weather rolls in, our thoughts on the farm …
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Movements of the Winter Bee Cluster
Add to Favorites The honey bee cluster moves up in winter and down in summer. The downward movement is easiest to see in a feral colony built into a tree …
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Should I Leave Supers on For the Winter?
Should I leave supers on for the winter?
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Preparing Honeybees for Winter
it’s important to understand what winterizing beehives look like for a backyard beekeeper.
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