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  • What do you do to get your bees ready for winter and did it work?

  • More advanced beekeeping discussion forum.
More advanced beekeeping discussion forum.
 #12250  by Patrick
 03 Dec 2021, 11:33
Before I used permanent reduced entrances I did have a mouse in one hive and it did make a right mess of several part frames, but no re-occurance since the switch.

Sadly I can't say the same about overwintered stacked supers - I had mice gain entry into a stack and between chewing out combs and pooing on those below the nest, there was a right off of a substantial amout of kit. How I did not laugh.. All I can say is everyone fixates on wax moth but making sure overwintered supers are mouse proof is even more crucial. I am not talking just about keeping them four square and on a mouseproof base, but also that the box edges are properly mating surfaces all round. Bees stop minor gaps being a problem on the hive but it seems amazing how much older kit develops unsuspected low spots.

This year the prolonged mild autumn meant I had to top up the late summer feed with a small supplementary, which was a pain but better to do that then than be on the back foot with pushing fondant down them hoping not to hold back early spring expansion. As to be expected, they seem to still be hefting heavy at the moment but I have an overwintered nuc on fondant.

The dreadful spring and early summer weather we had in Somerset totally stuffed most of our bees and they never really peaked until far too late for our flows. I tried pollen patties for the first time last year but they were not really interested, possibly because we do have a variety of local pollen so when they could fly, maybe there was some natural on offer. I am going to try again however (I still have the bucket of sub. powder) but try another mix, just to see if it gets them going any better. We can't have two such rubbish years consecutively surely?