Supplies | Beekeeping in Richmond, Virginia

Feeding Recommendations

I just read an e-zine from Brushy Mountain that encourages everyone to be feeding their bees right now, thanks to the lack of rain and dearth of nectar. If you’re in an area of the country that is experiencing a multi-year, devastating drought (mostly the corn belt, like Iowa), this may be necessary (I have no experience with this kind of scenario in my beekeeping travails), but I do not believe it is necessary in our area (which may experience a month or two of drought in a given Summer.)

Bees are biological organisms, just like deer, birds and other insects. You don’t have to feed those organisms in our droughts and you shouldn’t have to feed your bees, unless you somehow have a genetic derelict in your apiaries. If you do have such a bee, one that cannot survive in our environment without external, man-driven measures, I would argue that you SHOULD let them perish. We do not need that kind of genetics in our area.

This discussion is particularly relevant today, based on the large number of queries that I have received about ‘should I be feeding my bees’ from local beekeepers. Based on my comments above, you might conclude that I never feed my bees. In fact, I do feed some of my bees, but very rarely in August (or July). I am a firm believer in feeding any new colony (caught by a swarm or purchased) until it has drawn out (drawn out refers to the frames of foundation and drawing each out with wax) whatever you consider to be the hive bodies. Drawing out wax takes a tremendous amount of resources and you sometimes get a new hive so late in the nectar flow that they have little chance of drawing out their living quarters before the flow is over (usually in June). To help them over this obstacle, feeding is a good thing. Once they have drawn out their living quarters, there is no natural reason to feed them again (but, I might change my tune if I ever experience a multi-year drought…)

But, do I feed my young hives in July and August? Unfortunately, there is no black-and-white answer to this. In my experience, if I have a young hive that has drawn out the lower hive body (for me, this is usually a Deep super), I will continue to feed in July/August as they finish drawing out the upper hive body (for me, this is typically a Medium super.) As long as I feed late in the day (when most troublesome foragers from other hives are already back home for the day and less likely to smell this new treat as I pour it into the hive), hives of this size have no problems keeping out potential robbers and benefit well from the feed. But, I also have brand new, queenless Nuc’s in my home yard at this time of year. These Nuc’s (for Overwintering) are not expected to fill out a full hive body. Instead, they only need to fill out 10 frames (5 in the lower Nuc and 5 in the upper Nuc.) In addition, in July and August, many of these Nuc’s experience a queenless period as they raise their new queens. I never feed a brand new Nuc that is queenless in July or August. Absolutely never. It seems to me that queenless nuc’s are at the greatest risk of being robbed out during this time of year. In fact, any Nuc has a high chance of being robbed out this time of year, but queenless Nuc’s seem to really be at risk. My goal with these hives is to get a laying queen before I feed and I try to hold off feeding until late August at the earliest.

Finally, I suppose it is possible that you could take too much honey from your hives during the honey harvest and then have to feed to make up for that mistake. I have never done this, so cannot really comment on it. In truth, I checked 3 outyards today and have lots of extra honey, including 1 fully drawn and capped Medium honey super (many of my spare supers are partially drawn and filled, but not capped.) As stated many times before, I definitely believe that you will end up with stronger bees if they are eating nectar-based honey over the Winter, as opposed to syrup-based. It may be the reason why I simply do not have Winter losses.

It should also be noted that:

1. I only use top feeders (see insert) for my full hives. In my opinion, this is the best kind of feeder for a full hive. So, when I am feeding my younger hives in July/August, it is with this kind of feeder. I would never use a boardman-style (or other external) feeder. Having feed hanging off the side of a hive is a big advertisement to other bees in the area.

2. I pretty much feed the same mixture all year. For me, it is basically 10 lbs of sugar mixed with 2 gallons of water. If you go by a ‘pint is a pound the world around’, this comes out to something like a 1.6 parts water to 1 part sugar.

It’s Painting Time!

Now that my extraction fun is over, I have a good moment to rest and enjoy several of my other hobbies. The main task that I tackle in July focuses on my starter hives (those hives that I started this year that have NOT built out the brood nest yet). I try to watch them once a week, although it can go longer if things appear to be going well on the outside. I am primarily checking my top feeders, to add another gallon or two of feed. The goal is to get these hives with a drawn out Deep & Medium by October or so and let them roll through the Winter. Since these hives are in my backyard, it’s not a time intensive task at all.

The second task that I focus on is next year’s equipment. Although Winter is a great time to put frames together, I personally like to get my supers put together (for next year) from July to September. These are typically great months to paint, due to high temperatures and dry weather, so I like to knock it out now. I can honestly say that having all of your equipment ready in March is a true dream. You can focus solely on what your bees are doing, instead of hustling to get everything put together and painted. Plus, a super painted now does not ‘stick’ like a super painted a month before it is used!

Buyer Beware

I hate to be a curmudgeon (can you be one of those at 44 years of age?), but I have to whine about something that I encountered tonight. It is more evidence to me that you have to be really careful when buying your bees.

I attended the Richmond Beekeeper’s Association tonight to listen to some talks by 1st year beekeepers and a discussion about mentoring the new beekeepers. During the conversation, someone mentioned a deal that they organize for new packages in the Spring. Effectively, someone collects the orders and picks up a huge load of packages to be delivered to members of the club. All well and good.

In the process, someone (not me, although I do agree with this philosophy) mentioned Nuc’s and how they can be more expensive, but you’re getting local bees that have lived in the area. This is really only one of many reasons, but that was the reason mentioned (and it happens to be the primary reason that I purchase Nuc’s when I am in the purchasing mode). They subsequently mentioned a gentleman who might have Nuc’s available for sale this year. I have had a couple of folks who read the blog contact me about Nuc’s, so I wanted to check this guy out. As mentioned last Summer, I was not at all pleased with the Nuc’s that I received from my bee supplier in Varina and no longer recommend the fellow. I was hoping to find another good source that I could recommend.

As we started talking, I asked him about how he manages his bees. He looked at me quizzically (in retrospect, that was a dumb question to ask) and I explained that I wanted to know if he used chemicals and which ones he used. That was the real question that I wanted answered, but I was a bit off my game after my initial vague question, and went on to mumble several other questions so as not to seem like I was some nut who was going to harangue him for using chemicals on his bees. One question (which I assumed that I already knew the answer to) was “and, for example, how do you choose which of your queens you raise Nuc queens off of, how long have these queen lines been in the area, etc…’ Much to my surprise, he immediately stopped me and shook his head. “I don’t use my own queens. I order my queens from Georgia and put them in my own bees.” I have to say that this is one of the last things I expected to hear.

Now, to his defense, he is getting bees ready far in advance of regular Nuc’s. He’ll probably have his ready at the end of March (most local Nuc’s won’t be ready until May). In addition, he should have a queen that has already been accepted by the bees (you can’t guarantee this with a package.) But, after a couple of months, you basically have a bunch of bees from Georgia. The whole genetics of this Nuc turn to ‘non-local’ right off the bat (well, with a couple of months anyway…) My beef with this is that many (if not most) folks recommend Nuc’s because you are getting local bees. And by ‘bees’, they mean the queen too!

Again, I feel like a whiner, but I can say that this is not what I mean when I say ‘Nuc’. It is another example of ‘buyer beware’ when it comes to purchasing Nuc’s.

Winter Bee Equipment Order Placed!

Snow on my Bee Hive — Eight inches of snow in December

I am doing a lot of reading these days, some of it in books and periodicals, but the majority of it online, reading a couple of the really great forums out there. While on Beemaster.com, I found a post stating that Dadant was shipping bee equipment for free in December! Since I am a Dadant man, I gave them a call today to confirm.

The kind lady confirmed this great news and I have ordered a set of deeps, shallows, some swarm lure (for fun) and a few honey-harvesting related supplies (who knows! I might have honey this year!)

At any rate, this was a great find and something I will remember to check next year. I had planned to make a special trip while down at South Boston with the Inlaws over Christmas, so this was a great time saver.

One note about the foundation – they do not like to ship that this time of year. The temperatures and treatment (in the mail) can damage the foundation pretty badly. They only ship ‘at the buyer’s risk’ and advised me against it. I was cool with that, as I can always make another trip later to get that (or maybe have one of the beekeepers in the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Association pick it up during one of their trips.)

At any rate, this was a great Christmas present.