First, I'm sorry I've been rather lax in my postings. I hope some of you have taken the opportunity to review some of the old posts while you wondered where in the world I was.
Last week was my birthday, my middle daughter was visiting from Maryland, my youngest daughter here in Atlanta is pregnant, due any day, and I hosted Thanksgiving for my family at my house.
Needless to say, the bees have taken a back seat.
However, over this weekend I checked on most of my Atlanta hives. Most appear to be going into winter with good supplies. I fed the bees bee tea going into the fall and most of the hives were slow to take any food, which is a good sign. Generally they would prefer nectar and around my house we had a pretty good fall aster bloom (and therefore a decent fall flow). So they haven't taken the bee tea because they didn't really need it.
One of the advantages of the rapid feeder is that it can stay on the hive during the winter. A second advantage is that thick sugar syrup rarely freezes so if it is warm enough for the bees to move around, the syrup is there for their taking. So my 8 frame hives will keep the rapid feeder through the winter.
Plans for winter:
1. Make creamed honey from the early honey this season that has crystallized
2. Build my unbuilt nuc boxes
3. Paint equipment and assess my equipment needs
4. Try to look for a possible local place to put the beehives from south Georgia
5. Make plans about our bee business Linda Ts Bees with Jeff to determine where we need to focus come spring
6. Work on my short course talk with Cindy Hodges on the year in the bee yard in a beginning beekeeper's year.
7. Work out a sugar shake schedule to begin in January for all the hives.
8. Decide about splits - surely I can split Colony Square and probably Lenox Pointe as well.
Last week was my birthday, my middle daughter was visiting from Maryland, my youngest daughter here in Atlanta is pregnant, due any day, and I hosted Thanksgiving for my family at my house.
Needless to say, the bees have taken a back seat.
However, over this weekend I checked on most of my Atlanta hives. Most appear to be going into winter with good supplies. I fed the bees bee tea going into the fall and most of the hives were slow to take any food, which is a good sign. Generally they would prefer nectar and around my house we had a pretty good fall aster bloom (and therefore a decent fall flow). So they haven't taken the bee tea because they didn't really need it.
For example, I put these two feeder jars on the Blue Heron nuc on 11/14. Here it is almost two weeks later and they've barely touched it. So I can feel pretty sure that they don't need it.
One of the advantages of the rapid feeder is that it can stay on the hive during the winter. A second advantage is that thick sugar syrup rarely freezes so if it is warm enough for the bees to move around, the syrup is there for their taking. So my 8 frame hives will keep the rapid feeder through the winter.
Plans for winter:
1. Make creamed honey from the early honey this season that has crystallized
2. Build my unbuilt nuc boxes
3. Paint equipment and assess my equipment needs
4. Try to look for a possible local place to put the beehives from south Georgia
5. Make plans about our bee business Linda Ts Bees with Jeff to determine where we need to focus come spring
6. Work on my short course talk with Cindy Hodges on the year in the bee yard in a beginning beekeeper's year.
7. Work out a sugar shake schedule to begin in January for all the hives.
8. Decide about splits - surely I can split Colony Square and probably Lenox Pointe as well.
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