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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Buzz kill! Is this 'bee Armageddon'?----serious problem for all.

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  • From: carla safran <carladababe AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Buzz kill! Is this 'bee Armageddon'?----serious problem for all.
  • Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:39:52 -0700

Hello,
      I have a several  hives here in Missouri, and have lost in the past to winter weather. This last year when temperatures were reported to be 20 below zero I figured I had to do something to protect my bees. They can usually stand temps in the teens and occasional single digit for short duration.  I bought insulation from the hardware store, wrapped it in plastic tarp (to keep it dry and stay enclosed,) covered my hives with the tarp, secured them with bales of straw on either side and hoped for the best. A fellow beekeeper friend of mine told me that the insulation would keep the hive too warm and the bees would go through their stores too fast. So I fed them when temperatures were less freezing. I took off the insulation when temps stayed in the forties. They seemed to do just fine, plenty of bees this Spring, have had to put up suppers to give them more room. Granted luck fell on my humble amount of hives but I'll do the same next winter if need be.
 

From: rstewart AT zoomtown.com
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:58:11 -0400
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Buzz kill! Is this 'bee Armageddon'?----serious problem for all.

Mike

How many did you loose and why?

I lost nearly 1/3 of my 30 colonies.  One as a direct result of my own actions and all the rest to winter freezing...a natural event that happens to "wild" colonies and kept, still with a good 30 to 50 pounds of honey in stores.  Sometimes it simply gets too cold for some colonies to make it.  We had a bad winter.  Normal losses are always between 10 and 20% and have been since modern beekeeping allowed humans to keep bees alive to harvest the product of the hive.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106


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