BBKA Forum

I leave Varroa trays in to reduce wind blowing up through the mesh floor. I also put a super full of drawn comb under the brood box to reduce wind swirl further. I agree Nigel insulated hives use less food. The utimate question must be how little air exchange do they need. CO2 may well be the limiting factor rather than the need for water removal. Bees are able to tolerate high levels of CO2 but from what I have read, start fanning to remove it at a concentration around 1%. As well as heat loss, too much air exchange can lead to dessication and extra trips for water carriers in marginal conditions.

scoped out some more apiary sites that I had been offered.

Applied for a job


There were bees from both hives flying in my garden this morning when I braved it to the compost heap. Obviously it wasn't as cold as it looked.

The one at Manchester Cathedral?
Good luck and hope you have a head for heights....

Good luck Diane.

And put pollen subs on.

NigelP wrote: ↑

25 Jan 2019, 18:20

The one at Manchester Cathedral?
Good luck and hope you have a head for heights....

That's the one!
Yes, me too! We get to go and have a look round the hives at the start of February.

Checked an out apiary yesterday with 5 nice colonies there in autumn. One had died of starvation. Last checked about 3 weeks ago and added 3 kilo of fondant as they were light, to that particular colony. They'd eaten it all plus any remaining honey. It had been a good strong colony and even found the queen. Must annoyed with myself.

What a gutter Chris. All credit however for admitting it - I suspect it is a lot more common than many are aware of until much later and probably often misread even then.

I would have expected a 3 kilo fondant chunk to have kept them going awhile too.

It was a bit if a shocker, i can tell you. I thought I'd share as a heads up to others. I think with the mild weather this winter this is gonna be a problem.

I'd got a 12.5kg block of fondant in the car at the time, that got split up between the other 4 in different sizes. Another last time got a 2.5kg block on of ambrosia bee feed and that had just about gone, so it got 1/2 kg of pollen sub and a big block of bakers fondant this time. I'll be checking in two weeks to see what rate it's going down.

Chris don't blame yourself. We have all been there and bees will continue to spring surprises on us. I guess the more than a kilo a week they were eating meant they had used up most of their food stores by Christmas. Maybe a mild autumn led to a lot of brood being reared. Interesting to know what type of bees they were. I understand A.m.ligustica tends to turn food into brood. Most colonies consume a lot less in winter. My long term average hive weight loss over winter is around 7kg beginning of November to end of March, or about 330g per week, although it does vary from year to year and from hive to hive with one using over 15kg through winter. I had to keep putting on more fondant. My hives then were down south and in a very sheltered location.