Link to Presentation: drive.google.c...
Winter up here in the Yukon is like one of those Ultra Marathon races, the hives need to be well nourished, healthy and properly housed to be able to survive 7 months from October to sometime in April. My goal is to cover my approach and my trials over 2 or 3 articles. Over the last 7 years I have lost 3 hives in late winter out of 30. These 3 hives had severe dysentery which likely spread Nosema C throughout the population. I have also lost one hive in late spring from a rapidly declining hive from Nosema C. I will cover the reasons and show you how even those winter losses were preventable.
I will start by saying that “All Beekeeping is Local” however bee biology and physics is universal. Every beekeeper needs to develop the skills and knowledge to filter information and learn to apply it to their local environments. One can do this by developing a set of filtering questions for every piece of advice from other beekeepers, bee books, Facebook or one of the many beekeeping forums.
Where/Who is the advice coming from?
• Weather/Seasons/Timing
• Forage/Dearths/Quality
• Isolated/Populated/Rural/Urban
• Years of experience
• Number of hives
• Success rates
Ask them why they think it works?
• Supported by science, trials, research
• Be wary of anecdotal sayings and expressions
This is where my story really begins. I now have 3 simple bee rules that I follow and continuously look at improving. (1) Bees need food; (2) Bees need to be healthy and numerous; (3) Bees need a dry home. I no longer prepare for winter in the fall. I manage my hive from spring to late fall in a way that ensures the bees will be in the best position to deal with all of the year round stressors.
In very cold climates (sub-arctic), we typically only get one chance to get things right during the season, one chance at getting the bees ramped up to healthy populations, one chance to make a swarm split, one chance at getting a honey harvest, one chance to maximise the number of healthy winter bees going into the winter. Our season runs from early May to early September. In that time we squeeze in a short swarming season early June, one minor nectar flow mid to late June, one major nectar flow mid-July to early August. Winter bees get raised from early August which coincides with 1st frosts at higher elevations. We typically have 2 dearths running from early July and then from middle of August.
20 авг 2024
