The Challenges of Isolation

This year was entirely off the charts bizarre and frustrating and no one will argue that it created a lot of trauma for many.   But in the end most of us are inherently bent on getting better at our craft despite the obstacles.  How do we get better in the age of the Black Swan?  The best game in my humble opinion is one played with agility, preparation, faith and enthusiasm. 

Agility and preparation means we are able to move from one plan to another to suit the current mission environment, and both require data.  If you aren’t weighing your hives each month, it’s a good exercise – just to see “real” data from your local conditions, information that’s relevant to you is enlightening.   

It’s pretty common knowledge that the expansion and contraction of the cluster during temperate days and colder nights catches the smaller clusters too far from food to keep them alive overnight and there is a critical mass threshold about <1/2 frame in my experience that just can’t pull through.  So clear days and nights are a death sentence for anything that doesn’t cover a whole frame or two.  Expect your first losses there.

Dwindled cluster caught away from food

What’s it look like out there in the boxes right now?  Some colonies are dwindling due to disease or late season queen failure (you knew in your heart these guys weren’t going to make it).  I’ve learned from years of veterinary medicine that you can’t save them all, and some shouldn’t be saved, so this isn’t criticism, it’s just reality.  Some that are just big enough to move into the side frames to access food that is out of reach of a centered cluster will be next when they run out.  The most heart wrenching are the big colonies that have literally eaten their way out of house and home.  But what can be done now??  If it’s a toss-up between a hive starving to death and breaking open a box to put in feed, well there’s no choice in my mind…..a little slab of pollen sub and a pile of sugar might well save them.

Actual Temp graph for Camano Island Jan 2021 –orange is actual day time temps.  Red line is avg normal.

Average temps have been going up on the average in the last few years, and as they increase, the metabolic rate of the bees increases.  I’ve been told that you need 60# of honey in your boxes each fall to hold the bees through the winter.  No matter how much I pushed the syrup they’d hardly ever get to 100#.  I’d ask myself what I was doing wrong until I realized my conditions are different and the bees don’t need or want that much in the boxes.  They also like to make brood here on the water almost all winter and don’t want to put honey in the brood nest area. 

Brood in an overwintered nuc Jan 1

As an example here’s the data from T Yard, one of my strongest yards.  Average seams of bees in these guys are 7+ clustered.  You can see they go through about 5 to 6# of weight each month not the 10# bantied about in some circles.  Generally, all my units got frames of honey in November (why their weight went up in Nov.) to boost their avg weights for winter.  Also, I added a few pounds of mountain camp sugar in December (why they pretty much stayed the same in Jan.) to get them through the February freeze we get here.  That doesn’t mean that 10# isn’t required in some areas, it means you have to know your area and what the local conditions are in order to make a plan for what they need.

An overwintered nuc with mountain camp