Okay, last winter killed us with our bees, but one hive made it. It wasnt fed or anything, it survived on its own stores and I was very thankful. I am trying to breed bees to survive indiana winters that dont need treatments or feeding. Yeah, I know it sounds like a pipedream and I dont judge other peoples management at all, its what Im trying to do here and have many failures on the way. I made strong splits this spring from that hive. We have many bees around, so I dont think we have inbreeding issues, but this year our bees are just so slow to build up. I go straight to my management and try to see where I can improve. I didnt have enough foundation for all the bees when all the splits made it, so I did supplement with sugar water during build up of comb. I didnt harvest any honey at all. They are just so light on reserves even now, so I fed them syrup water to build up their reserves for winter. They were out collecting lots of resources yesterday, but its rainy/cloudy today. Id like to know if anyone else has seen lightness in their hives in terms of honey and brood (normal for this time, but less than usual in my opinion over here) or if its just me and maybe I split them too far? Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 17:24:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015