But let’s be careful about it. It’s definitely not a good idea to open up a colony and separate a box. The bees worked hard to build that propolis seal to keep the weather out. What about emergency food? Waiting until the temps get to around 45-50 degrees is a good rule of thumb. I know it’s hard to wait. You have to be very quick at that temp. Just slip some fondant under the inner cover and close it up.
We can be comforted by the fact that our honeybees eat only a small proportion of their winter honey supply during the actual winter. Later toward the end of this month, however, the queen will sense the lengthening days of sunlight and begin to lay eggs again. Then all of a sudden there is larvae to feed and they are raising young again. Does it sound familiar? The kids are eating us out of house and home! Now what if there is a cold snap in late February and early March? Our colony needs to feed the babies increasing amounts of honey, plus they will consume more honey just to keep the cluster warm.
How warm does it need to be? Unlike mid-winter, when the cluster keeps the temperature at around 70 degrees, they now need to keep the center of the cluster at 92 degrees. That’s what the larvae need to develop properly. They will do this even if the air outside drops to zero degrees. Enter the heater bees mentioned in my January letter.
What happened to all that honey I thought they had? Late February, and even more so early March, is the most perilous time of the year for bees. They are using honey fast now, but nothing is coming in. Some colonies starve at that time, and unlike their human counterparts are likely to do, they will share their last bits of food among each other and then die off all about the same time, just when they are almost home free.
So, what can we safely do? We can have some fondant or sugar cakes made up while we wait for the thaw. There are recipes online. They normally will come out as hard sugar cakes. Make sure you place them right on the top bars, so the bees make direct contact with them. Even ladling white sugar on the top bars helps them out. This is not the time of year to feed syrup.
Enough on winter feed. I should mention that our speaker for our next general meeting will focus on the competition between our managed honey bees and other native pollinators. The information is based on a three-year study. The date of that meeting is February 25th. Come to our next meeting and be informed!
All for now. Share with us how you wintered over! Everyone seems to have a different twist. What worked for you?
Sincerely,
Andy Hatt, BYBA President