Messy Dry Sugar Feeding

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I dumped 4 kgs (8.8 lbs) of dry sugar in one of my farm hives on the way to work today. I was in a hurry, which is not a good thing to be in while beekeeping. I should have cut the newspaper precisely before I arrived instead of roughly tearing a piece of it there on the spot and quickly placing it over the top bars. I should have put something in the middle of the paper, like the roll of duct tape I had on me, to make it easier to create a hole for the bees crawl through too.

I wouldn’t call this the greatest example of the dry sugar method of feeding (a.k.a. the Mountain Camp Method), but I’ve seen (and done) worse. It could have been windy and the newspaper could have blown away. It could have been warmer and the bees could have been flying in my face. The bees could have poured out over the sides of the hive and I would have had to scoop them up with my hands and flick them back in the hive — if they weren’t flying in my face. So maybe it wasn’t pretty, but I got ‘er done.

Other topics touched on in the video: hive wrap, insulation, problems with tape and hive wrap, the importance of paint and wax-coated components, the possibility of mice in the hive, top entrances shelters and bottom entrance shelters.
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Comb Honey Instead of Sugar Bricks

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I’ve enjoyed being able to check on my bees during my lunch breaks over the past while since Omicron shut down my normal office work schedule. What a lousy way to learn the Greek alphabet, eh? I’m burnt out from the pandemic like most of us, but being able to take a break from my office job and hang with my bees has provided a huge mental boost. Today, for instance, all I did was give some comb honey to a colony I suspected was hungry. It only took about five minutes, but it was so relaxing.

I did this so fast, it didn’t require smoke, a veil or gloves. The bees were too busy staying clustered to worry about me. The sun is beating down on the black hive now. What heat was lost will be regained quickly. I’m also planning to wrap the hive with silver bubble wrap to see if that helps.

Bottom Entrance Shelters For Beekeepers on a Budget

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In this 4-minute video, I check in on my cotton hive pillows; I drop a big brick of sugar and some protein into a hive; I check in on my silver bubble wrapped hives; and I invent a cheap and easy bottom entrance shelter for beekeepers on a budget, just like I did with my yogurt container upper entrance shelters that seem to be all the rage now.

And again for the truly dedicated, there’s an extended 18-minute cut at the end that dives into all of that and more in greater detail.
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Winter Bees

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Here’s a 5-minutes single shot of what I hope are big and healthy winter bees. It took me about 4 years, something like that, to clue in about winter bees. They’re are not the same as regular summertime fun time worker bees, and I’m still not really an expert at it.


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More Winter Beekeeping Chores

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In this 6-minute video, I add a feeder rim to a hive; some yogurt container shelters around the upper entrances; I check on some cotton hive pillows (that seem to be working well, possibly as good as moisture quilts or ventilated quilt boxes); I wrap another hive in silver bubble wrap; and I can’t remember what else, but it’s riveting stuff as usual.

Much of what I do is experimental, so don’t quote me on anything I say in this video (or any of the videos I’ve posted in the past 12 months).

Yogurt Shelters

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Beekeepers on a budget with minimal carpentry skills might like these little shelters I made from old yogurt containers to keep wind, rain and snow from blowing through the upper entrances of my beehives. Here’s a three and a half minute video that shows what I’m talking about. (It ends with a 15-minute extended cut for those who like to dig a little deeper.)

It’s an experiment.
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See You Next Year

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Dear Readers (all five of you — Hi Mom!):

I don’t see myself posting much of anything over the next few weeks. But here’s a playlist of personal favourite videos from my archives. Many of the videos are simply attractive shots that could appear anywhere, not just on a beekeeping blog. Slow and calm and pretty. Put it in full-screen mode and let ‘er rip.

I will still post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from time to time, but I also hope to unplug, so maybe not.

Take care and see you next year,

Phillip

Storing Comb Over Winter

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I store frames of drawn comb over the winter by building a well ventilated hive in my unheated outdoor shed. Here’s a video that proves it:

The hive full of drawn comb (and some capped frames of honey) is well ventilated on the bottom and top using queen excluders so mice can’t get in. The hive can be built outside on its own too. No shed required.

Foil Bubble Wrap and Cotton Pillows – Part 2

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I dropped in on the hive that I wrapped with foil bubble insulation to see if it survived a storm that brought in 140 kph (87 mph) winds. I also checked on the cotton hive pillows that I made last week to see if they were mouldy.

Bubble foil wrap holding on tight after six days and a snow storm with 140 kph winds. (Isle of Newfoundland, December 11th, 2021.)


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Reflective Bubble Foil Insulation (Hive Wrap)

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My first time wrapping a hive in silver bubble wrap. I probably should have attached it with screws instead of heavy duty tacks that might pop off in high winds. But we’ll see. It was a lot cheaper than buying officail hive wraps made from the same material. The hive wraps would have been about $40 for a full-size Langstroth hive, but this came in at around $10, maybe a little more.

Cotton Hive Pillows

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Hold on to your hats.

An experiment. I’m making hive pillows using old cotton pillow cases. The pillow is full of wood chips and straw. I’ve been toying with these for the past couple of years because moisture quilts — or quilt boxes with upper ventilation — aren’t as convenient as I’d like them to be. They don’t hold in heat well either. My bees in Flatrock, where it’s unusually cold and damp compared to many places in Newfoundland, seem to need all the heat they can get, and moisture quilts, heat-wise, just don’t cut it.
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Dry Hives and Shrew-Proofing Mesh

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The excitement continues as I finally got all my hives protected with 6mm / quarter-inch mesh yesterday. I’m also pleased with one hive where the bees are clustering well beneath their honey and the hive is dry as a bone. I’m not going to mess with it.

It’s a 3-medium hive painted black, no wrap, the bottom entrance with mesh but wide open for ventilation, an open top entrance, a piece of silver bubble wrap insulation over the inner cover, the inner cover hole covered with screen but open, a ventilation rim over that, and a small hive pillow inside the ventilation rim.
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Hive Pillows to Replace Moisture Quilts

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While ventilated quilt boxes and moisture quilts can do a great job at keeping beehives dry in the winter, they can be a pain to maintain… in the rain on the plains with stains on my cranes. You know what I mean. I’m looking to simplify what I do. So instead of dumping wood chips into a quilt box or moisture quilt, I’ve been dropping what I call a hive pillow over a slightly insulated inner cover, hoping for the same drying effect of a moisture quilt but without the loss of heat.

I know it looks like I’m working without a plan these days, but there is a method to my madness.
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