Mine still has plenty of sugar brick left so far. I was wondering if my hives were still alive the other day but it was too cold to look inside so I bought a cheap stethoscope and listened to them. It's amazing how well that works. Very good 7 dollar investment
In our area we are able to get reject sugar, it's the scraping and reject sugar from shipping. You might look local to see if you can find something similar near you. One thing in most cases it can look real similar to powdered sugar but it it's a powdered sugar as there is no additives. Get a good candy thermometer, it actually takes a LOT of heat to invert sugar and even more to make it toxic to the bees, the temp tolerances are actually much wider then most thing. You can also just invert the sugars with the citrus it just takes more of it.
It's worth asking the question of your local supermarkets, when they have breakages can the staff put broken bags of white sugar in a bin you supply, you will collect the day they send a text to do so. To "Help the bees." If the local supermarkets wont help, try their head offices. They are generally trying hard to improve "Green" credentials.
I have been trying out a variation of mountain camp. I live in NW FL so it rarely gets so cold that the bees can't fly / break cluster for any extended amount of time. I always keep a in frame feeder in my top box. So once it started getting cold I switched to putting dry sugar in the in frame feeder and pouring just a little bit of water over the top so that they would be less inclined to dragging it out as trash. Then when warm days come around I go in, check the frame feeder. If it is going to be warm for several days I might add a bit of water and try to make some thicker syrup on top of the dry sugar so they can drink it. But then by the time the cold comes back it will be mostly dry sugar again if that makes sense? So far it is working great. I went into them yesterday and I am a bit worried they might be doing toooo good... They were busting at the seems.
Great video, I support everything about sugar. I make fondant myself. In 25 kg of white sugar ground into powder, I add 1.5 kg of raw baker's yeast (proteins), 4 jars of honey (4 kg) and 0.25 kg of fresh pollen stored in the refrigerator. I mix all the ingredients without heating and make the dough, pack it in bags. I use the fondant only at the end of winter when the first brood in the hive begins, at the end of January or the beginning of February for my climatic conditions. Lots of honey I forgot to say that I add tea from wormwood (lat.amara absinthium) and pine needles as needed to get a nice soft dough(against nosema) only water can do it
You might want to check the great value sugar, I believe it is made from sugar beets and is the wrong type of sugar (the sugar crystals are more sharp). I read you should make sure it is cane sugar (domino is pure cane sugar). Please let me know if that is wrong. Thanks for the videos.
Hello, I saw you said in an earlier video you were from Niles area. Well, I live in Niles and had a question. In my 3rd year of beekeeping I went from 1 hive to 9. How many hives did you keep in one spot in the Niles area? I planned to stop about 20 - split them into double NUCs later in year(August) so I could get up to about 30/40 in one spot in a couple years. That too many from your experience? I do have several places within the Niles area that would let me keep bees at - 4 off the top of my head. Thanks for the videos!
My neighbor has a molasses lick feeder for his cows within 50 yards of my hives. The guy who fills it told me to taste it and it wasn’t sweet like regular molasses. I made sure he tasted it first. Hopefully my bees don’t use it. I didn’t see any on it.
Ants problem? Hmmmm well in the winter time of course I’ve never had a problem with ants, as for the summer time..I only had an ant problem with one hive and it was back when I was still new to beekeeping and using quart jars in an empty deep over an inner cover to feed. They never became a huge problem tho the bees put them in their place. I personally like using frame feeders now, when you have sugar water in one of them in a box that is packed with bees, the bees won’t allow any ants to get into it. Ants will collect wherever there are less bees. So try out a frame feeder if you haven’t already! I love the 2 gal ones that take up 2 frames. Turns your 10 frame into an 8 frame. I’ll have to make a video about all of the awesome benefits of that bc there are a lot! But I hope that helps! Thank you for being here!!! ☺️♥️
@@beefitbeekeeping Thank you for your reply and info. I usually use frame feeder or top feeder but i could see ants gathering under the lid or on top of the inner cover. I see more in the hives where i use bulrap as cover instead of wood inner cover
Not sure what happened but I lost 15 of my hives this winter out of 18 and all of them only had a very small ball of bees left in them ; it’s like they just disappeared
I am noticing the same thing with mine.. Kasey and I are still trying to figure out what happened. Everything started going down hill the moment the farmer next door cut down all of his corn and the dust from that rolled into the hives. Our theory for why some just disappeared is that we think some of the bees are joining stronger hives bc some of our strong hives now have an absurd amount of bees
@@beefitbeekeeping just a question, I’m in northeast South Dakota and normally we are very cold this time of year but we are at mid 40s for the next 2 weeks, will my bees start brooding up because of temperatures or do you think they will wait for march
Great videos by the way. In your past videos, you mentioned you wanted to create a disease-free/superior bee lineage? Doesn't feeding contradict your mission? Your theories on survival of the fittest make sense so why support a less-fit bee lineage by feeding them? Shouldn't they have put on enough weight for winter to support themselves and if not then you shouldn't want them, correct? SO WHY FEED?
Developing a super bee is a process. Bees are livestock. If they need food, feed them. On the way to developing a super bee, you’ll develop thrifty bees that will put away enough honey for the winter, but it’s a long path to improving genetics for a hobbyist/ sideliner. Dead bees can’t be improved.
It sounds like you're emphasizing the importance of a selective and strategic approach in beekeeping as part of the process towards developing a superior bee lineage. Culling weaker hives allows for the identification and promotion of stronger colonies, contributing to the overall improvement of the bee population. This practice aligns with the principle of fostering resilience and adaptability in bee colonies, which are essential qualities in the pursuit of a "super bee" with enhanced genetic traits. It is through this process of sacrifice that the rewards of resilience and genetic improvement emerge, paving the way for a thriving and superior bee colony."