So the super mild weather showing 13 degrees at the end of November has given me the opportunity to add a little extra winter feed. I have tried to set up my hives for winter so that even when cold I can check on the sugar remaining in the winter feeder box and add more, but I like to do this when as warm as possible, so this warm spell gave me the perfect opportunity.
The big problem I had was that with the red and green poly hives I had returned the flow super. This gave me a lot of grief as I couldn’t add any winter feed. So given the temperature I popped the flow super off, added a feeder and popped the super back on. Trying to be as quick as I possibly could. This gave me the opportunity to add a couple of sugar patties to the space and leave the bees access to the super when ever they require it. I Always try to leave enough honey in my hives and put them to winter with a brood box full of honey. But a bit extra is always better than not enough.
Sugar patties
This year I have been using Apipasta Fondant with added Vitamins. I bought a 15 Kg box and the 1 KG sachets seem to be really easy to use. You simply cut a hole in the packaging as marked and pop the blocks into the feeder. In previous years I have made my own patties but they are a lot of work for not a lot of savings. ~£2 per kg.
I got mine from Modern Beekeeping who I use for a lot of my bee supplies. I’ll let you know how I get on with them.
All the 4 poly hives have bees in them and received a couple of Kg of sugar, as did the light blue wood hive.
Purple. Appeared dead but gave 1 kg anyway
This is now my preferred winter setup for the poly hives that run Flow supers. A combination of the pictures on the left and above. Brood box, feeder as on the right, then flow super empty above, as in the picture above. This way when the winter feed is needed I can still feed in cold weather, by lifting the flow super up and slipping in an opened patty. H0owever the bees still have full access to the flow super and any stored honey that it may have. I also don’t need to fuss with the shim which is a great bonus. MY only gripe with this setup is that the feeders are not fully thick polystyrene all the way around and have a thin part for the handles. This leads to potential cold patches on the inside.. Hence the duck tape to try and seal them better.
You can see here the different layers. Bottom box is the brood chamber, the next layer up with the black tape is the feeder and then the super on top of that with the empty flow frames inside. I wouldn’t usually use black duck tape however i didn’t have any silver or white.
I’ve learned not to rely on the scales to tell me when the weight is getting low and the bees need feed as they are always out of batteries. Despite stating a 5 year charge they are dead in a few months. Will try again next year with a big recharge at the beginning of the year.
