My thoughts on feeding post harvest.

Feeding for the autumn and winter

With the honey harvest complete its time to consider feeding your bees. I would love to know the weight of each of my hives, but being a hobby beekeeper its very difficult to weigh each hive empty then calculate what the ideal weight should be. 

Each of my hives are a combination of different parts, some bought, some made so assessing individual weights is very tricky.

For me the easiest way is to take a look at each hive and assess it. Its still a bit open to interpretation  of how you asses the stores in a hive, but to me a good arch of honey across the top one third of each frame in frames 4 to 7, some larger stores in frames 1 to 3 and 8 to 10 would be ideal. Slightly less is of no major concern but empty outer frames and minimal in the brood sections is a real worry.

An ideal frame, neat brood space, pollen beneath and plenty of sealed honey in the top sections

I have made a small video on making up sugar and feeding. 

Its looking like a very positive ending to the year. The ivy is nearly in flower and with the 100mm plus rainfall we have received  this august, its looking very likely that the bees will be going in to the winter with hives packed full of honey.  Lots of flowers have had a second or third flush, plantain and clover to name but a few, are supplying plenty of pollen, theres not really a shortage this year, in others theres literally nothing around, so its all good news.

Ivy in some years can be very generous and is similar to oil seed rape honey in that it crystalises quickly. I have heard of some people putting on honey supers to take a last crop from their bees, but thats sheer folly!!!, its the bees moment to gorge and store around the main hive and prepare for the winter. We might just have a normal winter this year with snow and ice as well as milder periods.

If i can and theres time, I  believe in giving the sugar slowly, over at least a couple of weeks, to much results in a flooded brood nest, the queen must lay and lay well this time of year, its these bees that will last well in to next march, essential for the colonies survival.

 Queens are all to precious now, a lost queen after the end of august is as good as a lost colony in novemebr or december. The chances or re queening within the next 3 weeks are minimal, so be extra careful when assessing your hives. 

You don't get any second chances this time of year, or indeed up until the end of march next year, when the first few drones are produced.

Varroa mite treatment will again be done in November when the brood size is at very small, but thats another 3 month away, but its planning that keeps you ahead with beekeeping.  Its already time to think ahead, consider getting some frames in kit form.

Save yourself some money and build them yourself. Its not difficult, just takes a little time and patients. Something i don't appear to have a lot of these days, where has this summer gone!!