Episode 47 of the podcast is now live! You can listen on Podbean, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This week, I am discussing ‘The Thinking Beekeeper - A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives’ by Christy Hemenway. This is a wonderful ‘how to’ book with fantastic diagrams that I, as someone who just started with a top bar hive, find immensely helpful. Part 1 will cover the first 5 chapters, and I’ll wrap things up in part 2 for episode 48.
Last episode, I explained how my listeners could win a copy of this book! It was great hearing from everyone, and I am happy to announce that Jennahjrb on Instagram is the winner of the random draw! I’ll be in touch to get your information. Many thanks to all who entered!
Homestead Updates
Meatbutt, my sickly chicken, has shown some improvement but not as much as I’d hoped. It’s hard to know what to do with her, right now. She’s not so weak and out of it that I feel euthanasia would be a kindness but she’s also not well enough to go back outside with even the special needs girls. For now, she’s continuing to get special treatment in the house and I really hope she lets me know what the right thing to do is. It could be that I just need to accept that she’s going to be a skinny, slower hen now.
Squeak, my cut-beak rescue hen, was in the house briefly so I could monitor her as she’s thinner than usual and has been a little unsteady on her feet. She is still eating, drinking, bright eyed, and interested in the world so I put her back out after 24 hours. I think, sadly, she is just reaching her twilight days and might not have much longer in her. I am keeping a close eye on her, putting out special food, and making sure she has the support she needs. It hurts my heart to find myself with two sick chickens because it really seems like it’s just their age and their little bodies starting to give out. I can’t cure old age, sadly.
Weeding is a constant battle at the moment (all by hand) but I’m proud of what I have accomplished and I’m hoping for more good weather so I can keep tackling it.
Mowing continues to be an every week affair and my sore elbow is not a fan but that’s what I get for having all this lawn! I have managed to use up more of the space with beds, and I still need to seed the buckwheat patch. Slowly but surely, I’m getting rid of the lawn, one patch/bed at a time!
Hive Updates
The Queenless split still has no queen! I have no idea what they are doing. They had queen cells but pulled them down. They had swarm cells but pulled those down. I gave them fresh eggs/larva over a week ago and they didn’t pull queen cells so it’s possible there’s a virgin somewhere in there. That said, they did make a huge swarm cell and I left it because I was afraid to potentially rob them of a queen. Gave them yet another frame of eggs and larva and will check on them very soon.
Nuc #1. Newly emerged queen is definitely gone. Whether there was something wrong with her and they killed her, or whether she never came back from a mating flight, I have no way to know. They had capped queen cells last time I checked, though, so hopefully a new queen will emerge very soon.
Nuc #2. Virgin queen spotted! Mating flights likely occurred last week so now it’s just a case of checking for eggs.
*
On to the book!
The Thinking Beekeeper is broken into two parts. Part I is called ‘Beekeeping Basics’ and includes chapters 1 through 3. Part II is called ‘When to Do What and Why’ and covers chapters 4 through 9.
Introduction
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead
The introduction opens with a short explanation of what led the author to top bar hives after starting her beekeeping journey with two Langstroth hives, just as so many of us have done.
“This is a how-to/why-to book. It is the amalgam of my own personal beekeeping experiences with the writings, the experience, the research and the bee stories of many amazing people. . . whom I’ve encountered since I had those first two hives.” Pg. xi
Hemenway mentions the bewilderment she felt as a new beekeeper, and how there were always so many varied answers to any question, with many claiming their way was the definitive way to keep bees.
This book is her way of filtering through the noise and attempting to present a clear guide to managing top bar hives.
I love the last paragraph in this section: “For those of you who get it that honeybees are a part of a huge, important, delicate and complex natural system - and who think that you would like to do your own part for that system and for them - this book is for you. In my mind, you will always be iconoclasts, rebels, renegades. . in other words. . . Thinking Beekeepers. What you do matters. Don’t doubt it.” Pg. xii
PART I: BEEKEEPING BASICS
Chapter 1: How Did We Get Here From There?
Chapter 1 is a succinct summary of the history of beekeeping, hive designs over time, and human created issues that profoundly affect the health of honeybees. I’ve condensed this information somewhat as it has been covered before during reviews of other books such as my recent Thomas Seeley series. I’ve included what I think to be the most pertinent facts.
Honey History:
Ancient Egyptians were likely the first to maintain bees in artificial hives
Before this, people usually sought out natural hives and killed the bees in order to get to the honey
Archeologists have found sealed pots of honey (still edible!) in King Tut’s tomb (1341 - 1323 BC)
In the ruins of the city of Rehor, 30 intact beehives (circa 30BC) were discovered, made of straw and unbaked clay. The structure of the hives and their position in neat rows indicates a fairly advanced honey industry.
Hive History:
The first movable comb hive, a top bar hive, was used in Greece in 1600 AD. Rudimentary in design, it consisted of a container such as a basket with bars placed across the opening. This allowed the comb to be lifted out and inspected.
Francis Harber, however, is the individual credited with making the first beehive with movable frames in 1789 in Switzerland. This hive was called the ‘leaf hive’ as the frames were hinged at the back so that they could be opened like the pages of a book.
This design by Harber led Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth to build his own style of hive that would allow frames to be inspected without “enraging the bees”.
He did just that in the mid 1850s, designing a vertical hive with self-spacing frames that used the concept of ‘bee space’ (the ⅜ inch of space bees leave when building comb to allow free movement within the hive).
This hive changed the history of beekeeping and, by the end of the 1800s, most North American beekeepers used some version of the Langstroth hive.
In the early 1920s, a man named Rudolf Steiner expressed concern with the level of manipulation and mechanization that was now happening in the beekeeping community due to the popularity of movable frame hives such as the Langstroth.
Steiner’s concerns included: the use of foundation, the manipulation of queen bees, preventing swarming (the natural reproduction of the colony), monocrop agriculture, moving hives to pollinate crops, the use of chemical fertilizers, the use of pesticides,
One of his lectures is particularly well known as Steiner states that the artificial queen breeding methods that were developing at the time would lead to honeybee collapse within one hundred years. By 2006, we witnessed colony collapse disorder. Was Steiner therefore proven correct?
Agriculture and Chemical Issues
WWI and WWII led to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The German Jewish chemist, Fritz Haber, discovered the means of synthesizing nitrogen, changing the world of agriculture as we knew it. He also developed a cyanide based pesticide, Zyklon A, which was later adapted to Zyklon B, the gas used by Nazis in their concentration camp gas chambers to murder “undesirables”.
In 1971, Big Agriculture began to emerge. US President Richard Nixon appointed Earl ‘Rusty’ Butz the Secretary of Agriculture. Butz was all about going large; encouraging farmers towards monoculture and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Big Ag was presented as being more efficient and profitable. We know now that it actually destroys the balance between soil, water, livestock, crops, and pests; the very things needed to keep agriculture flourishing. The damaging effects of Butz’s policies are still felt today.
In the 1990s, a new class of pesticides emerged: systemic neonicotinoids. Instead of being sprayed on plants, a systemic pesticide is painted on the seed and enters the tissue of the plant as it grows. This pesticide then enters the nectar and pollen of the plant, leading to it being consumed by bees and other pollinators.
Sadly, testing methods for the danger of such pesticides are poor, as they do not look for delayed side effects, or sublethal effects, which are effects that might damage pollinators but not kill them outright.
Hemenway also mentions GMOs as a potential issue as their effect on insects is not really clear at this time.
Colony Collapse Disorder
In late 2006, news broke about this bizarre and unnerving honeybee disorder.
The primary symptom is rather strange (and pure horror movie!): hives still filled with brood and honey stores but with not a single adult bee to be found. Brood and honey are two highly important features of a honeybee’s life and they will often fight to the death to protect them. So for the whole colony to abandon these two vitally important aspects of colony life is baffling and spooky!
What could make bees go so strongly against their natural instincts?
“In the years that have elapsed since 2006, bee researchers have gradually concluded that the cause of CCD cannot be pinned on any one single thing - one pesticide, one fungus, one virus, one parasite - but that CCD is caused by combinations of stressors breaking down the bees’ natural systems.” Pg. 9
Hemenway identifies a few things we could consider for the long term nature of agriculture: that bigger is not necessarily better; faster is not necessarily a good thing; and more is not necessarily the goal.
So how do we stop CCD? “By respecting and working with the natural systems that are part of our food system, and at work inside the beehive.” Pg. 9
This chapter ends with a quote by John Muir: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
Chapter 2: It’s All About the Wax
“Until man duplicates a blade of grass,
Nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge.”
-Thomas Edison
This chapter is all about the natural beeswax comb created by bees inside their nest cavity, and covers topics including frames, foundation, and potential chemical contamination within beeswax.
Honeycomb:
Hexagons: most efficient shape, least amount of material needed to create it
The comb is the “heart and skeleton of a honeybee colony.” Pg.11
Brood comb, drone comb, honeycomb
Bees are cavity nesters; nest inside a structure, building their comb to fit.
Frames:
Use ‘bee space’ (⅜ inch) to prevent cross-comb or propolis fill-in
Allows easy inspection of a colony without damaging the comb
The frame provides a supportive structure around the comb so we can handle it more freely and without risk of comb damage
Foundation:
A sheet of wax or plastic with hexagon outline printed onto it
Meant to serve as a guide for comb building and ensures straight comb
Has the same size cells; no difference between worker and drone cells
Standard cell foundation = 5.4mm
Natural cell size = 4.9mm
Why make foundation with large cells? It was hoped that larger cells would lead to larger bees, and this did prove true.
Some people believe this larger cell size has contributed to varroa mite infestation.
Important side note: Scientific Beekeeping and Honeybee Suite link some sources of small cell size and affect on varroa studies, and the results are all over the map so, as of right now, there’s no definitive evidence that larger cells have led to a greater varroa infestation or that small cell size will hinder varroa infestation. I recommend reading the articles from each of these websites and checking their sources for further information.
Unintended Consequences of Our Colony Manipulations
Hemenway identifies some common beekeeping management techniques that could be contributing to honeybee health issues.
Preventing swarming (natural reproduction); destroying queen cells, queenlessness, etc
‘Multiplying’ swarms aka splitting; done on our schedule, not the bees
Limiting drone brood. Drones are an important part of colony health but are often seen as ‘useless’, especially by honey-focused beekeepers.
Controlling sex of the bees through worker cell size foundation
Changing the size of the bee with larger cell foundation
Wrong shape: Langstroth frames are rectangular whereas natural honeycomb is a rounded shape called a catenary curve.
Chemical Contamination in the Hive
Many chemicals remain in beeswax, building up with time, which has contributed to mite resistance and can even sicken the bees
Wax from beehives is often melted down, strained, and reprocessed for use as a foundation coating, and this process does not remove the contamination of pesticides or miticides.
One study by a team at MAAREC (the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium) studied 887 wax, pollen, and associated hive samples, and found 121 different pesticides and metabolites
Does Standardization Make Sense?
Since the common use of standard foundation, there’s been an increase in honeybee pests and disease; tracheal mites, varroa mites, nosema, and CCD.
“The dangers of standardization spring from disregarding nature’s ways.” Pg.24
Interchangeability has clear benefits; moving frames from a strong hive to shore up a weak one, splitting a hive, offering a queenless colony eggs from a queenright colony in order to make a new queen, etc.
Hemenway believes that standardized wax foundation is not such a benefit, and that the creation of natural beeswax comb is “the most important natural system inside the beehive.” Pg. 25
Personal note: correlation does not equal causation, and a lot about our system of agriculture and approach to plant maintenance (pesticides, herbicides, foreign plants, etc) has contributed to CCD. It’s tempting to want an easy or convenient answer but more studies are needed.
Chapter 3: Basic Bee Biology
Time and Temperature:
It is helpful to learn how long the life cycle of each bee member within the hive, aka how long it takes for each to be ‘born’
When you know this, you can ascertain the answer to questions such as how long has a colony been queenless? Or how long until a newly emerged queen will begin to lay eggs?
Knowing the ‘bee math’ can save you time and a headache in the long term. It also helps to know what temperature is needed within the brood nest as this allows you to more effectively support your colonies.
Population of the hive:
On average, a colony has around 65,000 bees
1 queen, 55,000+ worker bees, and approximately 10,000 drones at the height of summer.
Hemenway states that drone population is usually around 15%, whereas Thomas Seeley puts it at about 20% so let’s say somewhere between those two figures
Queen:
Only reproductive female within the colony
Thorax is smooth, shiny, and black
Abdomen is elongated and pointier than a worker bee’s
Often less striped and more solid in colour
Wings do not cover her whole abdomen
Drone:
Males
Large, rounded and blunt abdomen (no stinger)
Big eyes that actually touch together
Purpose is to mate with virgin queens from other colonies. After mating, they die. If they have not mated by the Fall, they are evicted from the hive.
Worker:
Lots of them! 85% of colony
Younger bees, the nurse bees, are fuzzier
Abdomen and wings are the same length
Striped abdomen (usually)
Eyes are small, round, separate from each other
Bee math:
The queen, worker, and drone all spend 3.5 days as an egg.
The queen then spends 4.5 days as a larva and 8 days as a capped pupa; a total of 16 days until emergence.
A worker spends 5.5 days as a larva, and 11 days as a capped pupa; a total of 20-21 days until emergence.
A drone spends 6.5 days as a larva, and 14 days as a capped pupa; a total of 24 days until emergence.
Queen marking:
Practice of applying small dot of paint to a queen’s thorax to help identify her and the year she was born.
Colour used indicates the year of her emergence.
White: year ending in 1 or 6
Yellow: year ending in 2 or 7
Red: year ending in 3 or 8
Green: year ending in 4 or 9
Blue: year ending in 5 or 0
Queen clipping:
Cutting the queen’s wings so she can’t fly
Used as an attempt to prevent swarming
Often swarming will happen anyway and they just leave her behind!
Two queens in the same colony?
Hemenway claims that this happens more than we might think, in part because we stop looking for a queen when we have found one; one being the key word!
She estimates that as many as 15-20% of colonies have 2 queens for a short period of time during the swarm season, based on her experiences
Not all queens will fight to the death. As we learned in Thomas Seeley’s ‘The Lives of Bees’, workers will sometimes keep the first virgin queen to emerge away from the other queen cells so that they can time their release for a series of ‘afterswarms’, where part of the population leaves with a newly emerged queen (after the primary swarm with the mother-queen has already left).
Mating flights:
Queen bees always mate in flight, never inside the hive
Receives and stores all the sperm she will ever need on these flights
The more drones she mates with, the stronger her pheromones (more “beeloved”)
10-20 drones is fairly common but could be as many as 40
Swarming:
Colony reproduction
Swarm cells are made at the bottom of the comb (or frame) and the queen lays eggs in them; she is an active participant in the process.
The mother queen leaves with 50%+ of the colony
Virgin queens emerge, and the first might kill her sisters in their cells, or she’ll be kept away from them. The virgin queen that remains in the hive inherits it.
Supersedure:
This is when bees replace their queen
Unlike swarm cells, these are pulled on the center of the comb/frame as the worker bees choose which eggs to feed up as queens; the queen is not a participant in this process as she is with swarming
This is not a colony reproduction event
Colony will kill or remove the queen
Emergency queen replacement:
Something unforeseen happens and the colony needs a new queen ASAP
If they have plenty of young larva to choose from, they can begin raising new queens as with supersedure
If this cannot be done due to lack of appropriately aged larva, the queen pheromone and brood pheromone will lower to the point that a worker might begin laying.
Laying worker:
Worker bees are genetically female and have ovaries but have never mated and so are not capable of producing fertile eggs. Therefore, all they can produce are drones (males).
Eventually, the number of drones will exceed the number of workers, which the author refers to as a “colony of lost boys”. Pg. 36
Brood pheromone helps prevent laying workers just as queen pheromones do.
I think of drones as the sperm of the colony so this process of laying workers producing drones is akin to the colony throwing a ton of sperm (genetic material) out into the world, in the hopes that these males will successfully reproduce, allowing the genetics of the colony to live on.
One big benefit of interchangeable hive parts is being able to give a queenless colony a frame of eggs from which to raise queens.
Temperature:
Brood nest is maintained at 93F
Winter cluster with no brood is around 55F
The temperature needed around the area where they are building wax is 91F
Bees won’t fly when temps are below 48F usually
Below 46F, bees become sluggish, even inert
Location and Climate:
Know your local climate: South East beekeeper has different challenges than a North East beekeeper
Climate determines the growing season and thus bee food sources
Different pests thrive in different climates so hive management will be different depending on your area.
Pollination:
Why are honeybees such good pollinators?
They focus on one type of plant for each foraging trip; for instance, visiting dandelion after dandelion after dandelion, shedding pollen as they go.
Bee stings:
Honeybees are not aggressive as a rule
Only female bees (workers and queens) can sting; drones cannot.
Queens can sting more than once but usually only when eliminating rival queens (I’ve yet to hear of any beekeeper being stung by a queen)
Stinging leads to death for worker bees because their stingers are barbed, remaining in your skin when they fly away or are brushed off, essentially pulling their guts out.
Stinging is therefore expensive and not done lightly.
Stinging is a form of colony defense.
Some situations can increase a colony’s defensiveness and therefore increase the chance of stinging; a nectar dearth when food is scarce, shoring up honey reserves for winter, queenlessness, etc.
Genetics also play a role in aggression/defensiveness
It’s commonly believed that light clothing and little to no perfume can help prevent being stung.
Sting reactions:
Everyone will react in some way to a bee sting but this doesn’t mean you’re allergic.
Local reaction includes: pain, redness, swelling, and itching at the site of the sting. These symptoms can last for several days and are a normal response.
Systemic reaction: anaphylaxis, a severe, whole body response. This happens quickly, often within seconds, and is very dangerous. An Epipen can be administered at the scene and then the affected individual must seek emergency medical treatment ASAP.
Reactions to bee stings can change over time; some people build a resistance while others might one day experience an anaphylactic reaction with no prior history. Be careful and vigilant.
Hemenway recommends letting someone know when you plan to work your hives, if you’re alone, so that someone can look for you should something go wrong.
A note on dried bee venom: occasionally people have reacted to this. It often accumulates on bee suits so it's recommended that you wash your protective gear regularly.
The end of chapter quote is well chosen: “When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees”, by Joseph Joubert.
PART II: WHEN TO DO WHAT - AND WHY
Chapter 4: Your Top Bar Hive
I covered a good chunk of this chapter in my last episode so I’m just going to hit the key points now. Top bar hives are not a new hive design but they did fall out of favour as vertical, square-box hives began to dominate the market. There are usually two ‘camps’ of top bar hive beekeepers; those who see this style of hive as a long-standing tradition that they are proud to continue and support; and those who are looking for a different management style, and see top bar hives as a more sustainable method of beekeeping.
Important Elements of Top Bar Hives
The Cavity. This should be large enough to house the colony and enough honey stores for the winter in your area/climate (30 bars seems to do well in most of North America).
The Top Bars. They must be removable for inspection, work best with a comb guide, designed not to squash bees, and should be easy to lift in and out. In general, most top bars are designed for brood comb, which has a width of 1 ¼ - 1 ⅜ inch, so spacers are recommended for the bars where the bees draw out honeycomb (much thicker than brood comb).
The Entrance. The options are side/end, center, or center-side. There doesn’t appear to be a preference for the bees but the location of the entrance changes our management style. The benefit of a side entrance hive is that the bees will always grow in one direction; starting on one side and building comb out from there. With a center entrance hive, the beekeeper must perform a mid-season shift where they move the colony from the center of the hive to the far left side, allowing the bees to continue their one-directional growth. A benefit of starting a colony at the center is that there is space on either side of them, which acts as additional insulation during cool or hot weather.
Roof. Protects the top of the bars from the elements as well as predators. There are different styles to choose from but Hemenway prefers the Gable as it readily sheds rain and snow, and create a space above the bars where you can store additional top bars or place insulation for the winter.
Landing Boards. Usually only used on end entrance hives. The only real difference with this is the way in which bees enter the hive; you can watch them come in for a landing before walking into the hive proper. Hemenway points out that it’s just as fun, though, to watch the bees hover before a center entrance hole before darting quickly inside.
Observation Window. This is not a requirement but it is fun! It also offers the benefit of seeing the inner work of the colony without lifting any bars out. Any observation window should have a shutter or cover as too much light inside the hive will stress the bees and potentially cause them to abscond.
Other features to consider:
Top bar hives are foundationless, allowing the bees to build the type of comb (worker, drone, honey) where and when they need it.
Not using waxed foundation also helps avoid potential contamination in the hive.
On a frame with foundation, bees start to build the comb from the center and work outwards, which is not how they build natural comb; that is started from the top-down.
Vertical vs horizontal: in a Langstroth style hive, bees build upwards but in a top bar, they build horizontally. To bees, it doesn’t seem to matter which way they grow and expand. Honeybee colonies are regularly found building their nest in unusual places; as cavity nesters, they build comb to fill whatever space they identified as a good nest site. It’s interesting to note that, in a vertical space such as a tree, bees build from the top down.
Movement of air and moisture: in a Langstroth hive, air moves up, warms, and then condenses on the lid above the clustered bees, which can cause a potentially fatal issue in winter if that cold water starts to drip down on the wintering bees. In a top bar hive, there is no space above the bees where moisture can build; the bars form a tight seal above the comb where the bees cluster. Moisture can accumulate on the sides of the hive (especially on the observation window) but this might not be altogether a bad thing as winter bees still need water to drink.
A Brief Note on Warre Hives
Developed by Abbe Emile Warre (1867-1951), which is sometimes called “The People’s Hive”.
This is a vertical top bar hive, which allows the bees to build natural comb.
Management has the beekeeper placing additional boxes/supers under the primary box, not above, which allows the bees to build from the top down but also means there’s quite a bit of heavy lifting involved.
Often the bars of this style of hive are anchored in place, which means they are not movable, making this a fixed bar hive. This also means that inspections are impossible, which could pose a problem in states where the law dictates that all hives must me capable of inspection in order to keep bees legally.
Hemenway expresses her lack of experience in this area but wanted to mention Warre hives as they’re often grouped with top bar hives as a style of ‘alternative hive style’. She recommends doing as much reading about this hive as possible, and reaching out to beekeepers with more experience with the Warre hive.
Chapter 5: On Getting Started with Your Own Top Bar Hive
DIY
Many people build their own top bar hive, and there are plenty of free plans available online and in various books.
When doing it yourself, Hemenway recommends the following things to avoid: plexiglass for the observation window (warps over time and off-gases), laminated wood (often contains formaldehyde and the glue off-gases), and silicon caulk (toxic and also off-gases).
What does it mean to ‘off-gas’? This is when a product releases chemicals over time as a gas.
DIY Kits
Hemenway offers these on her website, as I mentioned in my last episode.
Be sure to check reviews, the kind of wood and fasteners used, and whether the maker of these kits has had actual experience using them.
Although an affordable kit does not mean it is lacking in quality, Hemenway cautions against using kits that seem too cheap to be true. Saving money in the short term could mean paying for it in the long term.
Unassembled Top Bar Hive Complete Kits
These contain everything you need for your hive, you just assemble it. Hemenway used to sell her own, and I detailed my experience with it in my last episode.
Again, don’t be cheap. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Both big and small beekeeping companies offer these so do your homework to decide what works best for you. Mann Lake Ltd. has a top bar hive kit for $250, which ships for free within the US.
Etsy has a few ranging from $105 - 600 (with varied shipping costs). Shop around and go with what appeals to you.
Contact your local beekeeping association and see if anyone builds them.
Bees
How do you get your bees for the hive?
Package (order in advance: Nov-Feb)
Swarm
Split (splitting one hive into two)
Nucleus colony (some top bar hive keepers make appropriately sized nucs! Ask your local club for guidance.)
Hack’n’Slash of a nuc: cutting Langstroth frames to fit your top bar hive
Relocating bees from a structure/bee removal. This can be extremely challenging is not recommended for a beginner.
Equipment and Supplies
Fully assembled top bar hive, ready for the bees
Location; sunny for areas with cold winters, shaded for places with very hot summers.
Direction: consider wind direction. Hive front should face South or Southeast.
Level. Very important your hive is level! Ensures good comb building.
Feeder. Whether placed outside the hive for the end-entrance style or inside for center entrance. Make sure it isn’t leaking.
Protective gear; veil, jacket, full suit (I like the ventilated ones!)
Journal or log book. Very useful!
Feeding a New Colony
1:1 sugar/water for Spring when night temperatures are reliably above 50F
Consider feeding a ‘stop gap’ measure, a way to help get them started
“Don’t get so caught up on being “all natural” that you don’t feed, and wind up starving your bees.” Pg. 72
Making Sugar Syrup
Spring syrup ratio of 1:1. 5 pints/10 cups hot water and 5lbs white sugar; makes a little more than 4 quarts of syrup.
Fall ratio of 2:1. 5 pints/10 cups hot water and 10lbs sugar.
Never boil the water with the sugar added. Always boil the water first, remove from the heat, and then stir the sugar in until it dissolves. Boiling will caremalize the sugar, creating tiny solids that the bees cannot digest, causing diarrhea.
Sugar syrup can also be made with a ‘tea tonic’ base instead of plain water. You can also add a few drops of lemongrass oil.
Best to avoid corn syrup as the average ear of US grown corn can contain around 3 different systemic insecticides.
Why Not Honey?
Potentially very harmful to your colonies.
Only feed honey your own hive’s honey back to it.
Honey from other hives might contain disease (such as American Foulbrood spores) or residual chemicals from treatments.
Stick to plain white sugar when making bee food.
Preparing the Hive
I covered this in detail in my previous episode so will just state here that the author recommends using the front-center entrance for top bar hives and all the management information she shares is geared towards this method and worth keeping in mind when she’s talking about the comb building direction and the process of adding additional frames.
And that's it for this week! I'll be back in two weeks with Episode 48 to finish off this book review. I considered cutting things down to make it more of a summary but I feel that Christy Hemenway has some really excellent insights and didn't want to miss skipping anything important. She has put so much work into creating such a clear guide that I want to share it with you all!
Until next time, I hope you're enjoying your gardens and livestock and bees. Remember to take a break and just soak it all in every now and then. :) Until next time!
