Winterizing the hive, part 1: Honey stores
At the beginning of
September I embark on the first of several winterizing-the-hives tasks.
Step one --- check on the honey stores and determine whether we need to
feed.
Here in zone 6
(southwest Virginia), the rule of thumb on honey stores is:
- Langstroth hives should have 50 to 60 pounds of honey (which is equivalent to 7 to 9 deep frames or 14 to 18 shallow frames)
- Warre hives should have about 39 pounds of honey (which is equivalent to 1.5 boxes full)
How do our two hives stack up?
- Langstroth hive: 23 pounds of honey (6.5 shallow frames)
- Warre hive: 26 pounds of honey (1 full box)
It looks like my
beekeeping mentor was right --- I probably shouldn't have stolen quite
as much of their basswood
honey. That's okay --- I'll top them off with sugar water now while
the weather is still warm enough to evaporate the gooey concoction.
Meanwhile, the copious brood in both boxes will ensure that the bees
are also socking away nectar from the "yellow flowers" (as my mentor
likes to call everything from wingstem to goldenrod). Hopefully by the
end of the month, we'll hit quota.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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