Day 1

So with time on my hands and the sun shining and being as warm as it is going to get today (around 12 degrees, but there is a keen breeze blowing  directly off the fresh snow down on the Desert Road making it feel more like 8 degrees C) I have started the project of trying to get these nucs building up through winter.  I have taken some photos of the two hives to document progress of.

 Last week I bought two new frame feeders. A new model supplied by NZBeeswax, they are Korean made. Some interesting features such as the “no drown insert and within that there is a anti burr comb insert. 

It will be interesting to see how they perform. 

The first nuc which I will call #1 had been given 1litre of syrup and 1/3 of a Megabee patty last week.

Today I transferred them to a 6 frame nuc box. There are approximately enough bee to cover 2 frames and in total around half of one side of a Full Depth frame has brood of all ages.

While transferring them to the new box I took the opportunity to inspect some suspect brood. The worst problem found was a bit of chilled brood on the edges of the brood nest, which isn’t unexpected considering the sudden cold snap we have had. Another nuc with a Drone laying queen that was culled today was shaken in to this colony as well to boost numbers by about another two frames worth of bees. A feed of 1:1 syrup with seaweed extract and the Megabee pattie was added.

Nucleus #2 had  population of 2 frames of bees and barely 1/10th of one side of a Full Depth frame with brood of all ages. An internal feeder with 1:1 syrup with seaweed extract and a Megabee pattie was added and closed up after removing the varroa treatment strips.

A quick whip around the rest of the hives had varroa treatments removed and the last of the patties placed in some smaller colonies along with a top up of syrup.

Stay tuned for the next update. 

@dansar a friend is putting marmite in his syrup.

He said it's really given the bees a boost 

6 minutes ago, kaihoka said:

@dansar a friend is putting marmite in his syrup.

He said it's really given the bees a boost 

Ewwww! I am a Vegemite guy.

Nice one @dansar. I will follow with interest.

Couple of questions: 1. Will they take down the syrup when it is so cold? 2. What ventilation do you have in these boxes to deal with the extra moisture that will be created through feeding syrup?

1 hour ago, CHCHPaul said:

Nice one @dansar. I will follow with interest.

 

Couple of questions: 1. Will they take down the syrup when it is so cold? 2. What ventilation do you have in these boxes to deal with the extra moisture that will be created through feeding syrup?

Yes

A 32mm hole at the back end covered with stainless mesh.

Never really noticed a problem with moisture other than having to reorient hives that were tilted back and rain water was pooling  on the base board.

Double post deleted.

And also, if the plan works, the bees will make use of any free water in the hive, it'll save them fetching it in..