Disclaimer:

This blog explains how I keep bees. It works for me, it might not work for you. Use my methods at your own risk. Always wear protective clothing and use a smoker when working bees.

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Monday, September 29, 2014

Working the bees yesterday

It was a nice day yesterday. The bees were very friendly and not crabby at all.
 Most of my colonies had very strong populations of bees. Several colonies were a little lite on food. I fed most of the colonies some ProSweet using hive top feeders. All of the feed had ProHealth mixed into the syrup, this can help keep down the Nosema spores in the bees gut. Nosema  are spores that can build up in the gut of the bee. High spore levels can bring out diarrhea in the colony and can lead to colony death usually in late winter. So keeping the spores at a lower level is a priority.
  Hive top feeders hold about 4 gallons of syrup. 4 gallons of ProSweet, that is about 46 lbs of food or about 5 deep frames worth of honey.  I wanted to make sure that the colonies are heavy with winter stores going into fall.
 The up coming winter is supposed to have below average temperatures with average snowfall. Having heavy colonies going into the winter and strong populations is the key for wintering success.
 The colonies have been treated for mites using Hopguard II.