This Month in the Bee Yard

October

The asters that started blooming last month should continue blooming through most of this month, October.  As previously noted, the asters continue to bloom even after a light frost and most of this honey is stored in the brood chamber.  The typical strong and sour odor should be present as long as the bees are able to work the asters.

A colony, in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, will need at least a shallow super of honey (30 lb.) and at least three deep frames of honey (3 x 5 = 15 lb.) to carry them through the winter.  The honey stores can be estimated by using three pounds for a shallow super frame full of honey and five pounds for a deep frame of honey.  Toward the end of October, check the honey stores.  If a colony does not have this minimum honey stores, that colony should be fed.  As was noted in the February article, the easiest way to feed a colony of bees is to transfer a few frames of honey from another hive that may have more honey than they need.  Another way to feed the colony is to feed sugar syrup.  For fall feeding of sugar syrup, mix 1.5-part sugar to 1.0-part hot tap water.  If you have the time and the facilities to heat the water on a stove, use 2.0-part sugar to 1.0-part water.  Use an inside feeder such as a jar or pail with four small holes in the center of the lid.  A frame nail is ideal for making these holes.  With only a few small holes in the feeder lid, it will be less likely to leak out and flood the cluster during the temperature/pressure fluctuations between night and day conditions.  Place the feeder over the hole in the inner cover or on top of the brood frames directly above the cluster of bees.  Then place a super or a hive body over the feeder.  An outside Boardman (entrance) feeder is not recommended in cold weather because it is too far removed from the cluster.

Near the end of October or early November, prepare all hives for winter.  In addition to checking the honey stores as noted above, the other preparations are as follows:  1) Remove the queen excluder if part of the winter stores is above the excluder, 2) put an entrance reducer in place on each hive to keep mice out any time the bees can not guard the entrance because of low temperatures and 3) raise the hive cover approximately 1/8 of an inch by using four small sticks or shims between the inner cover and the outer cover to provide upward ventilation.  These items are normally recommended for next month but if the weather forecast is predicting cold weather for early November, it may be better to prepare the hives a little ahead of time.  These preparations will, however, be repeated next month in the November article.  kgp