Hi all,
I’ve read most of the posts on feeding and still have a couple of questions I hope someone could answer for me! This is my first winter with bees so still very much a newb!
I’m in Dubbo, central NSW. I have 2 hives - 1 strong flow hive and a swarm I caught on christmas day in a brood box only. the swarm never got big enough to warrant adding on a super.
It has been (and continues to be) really hot, and really really dry here and I think the bees are feeling the consequences of that. I checked both hives on tuesday and whilst the flow has plenty of honey for the winter (although they’ve already eaten through a lot of their pollen stores) but the bees in the other hive had already eaten through all their pollen and the vast majority of their honey stores. On Wednesday I fed them syrup (2kg sugar in 1L water) and they demolished it in 24h.
I’m just not sure where to go from here - I’ve got some wattle that is about to bloom so they should be able to at least get pollen shortly but in the meanwhile, should I keep feeding till I see a reasonable amount of syrup stored in the frames? (The queen in still laying, although she has slowed down). Or should I feed all winter long now?
Unfortunately I don’t know any local beeks to get advice from (that’s changing though - I convinced my neighbour to the the flow 2 so at least we can stumble along together!). I know there is a few beeks in Mudgee who might be able to give me some local advice but although it’s only 2 hours away, the climate is quite different. We don’t get as cold and we don’t get as much rain as them.
Sorry if this is a bit long, but any advice would be very very much appreciated!
from steph