Protein patties in February

[Charlie]

The weather in Calgary has been unseasonably warm and I cannot remember a single time in the last half century when the weather has been this warm for an entire winter. Yes I know I only need to wait a half an hour for the weather to change here and I realize that we're barely into the second week of February but considering today was 60 degrees Fahrenheit/about 15 degrees Celsius and tomorrow should be slightly warmer. I believe I will drive up the Global Patties and buy a case of 25% protein if they have it in stock and throw a couple of patties on each of my hives.

I fully realize this is way early but I believe we're going to have a super early spring and wish to be ready for it. I actually had to capture one of the girls today inside the house and release her, this would not be terribly surprising at the end of April or the first part of May but February. I don't think there is any doubt that the climate is changing, fortunately for those of us in the western half of North America it seems to be for the better. Where as our friends in the eastern half of North America seem to suffer from far more severe weather and with any luck at all they will not suffer the spring but they had last year.

I would ask what's the risk to feeding patties too early....... Other than you could have a bunch of bees and get cold weather and need to feed them?

I would also ask what percentage of protein do most people feed and when do they normally start feeding the bees protein patties?

[Allen Dick]

Southern Alberta winter weather fools the trees. Warm weather tempts them to raise the sap, then a cold snap kills them or sets them back.

The same applies to beekeepers. Good wintering bees bees have enough sense to be conservative, but warm weather tempts beekeepers to feed and stimulate their bees, resulting in stress and losses when the unseasonable weather ends. April can be a very nasty month for bees.

Bees deplete their body reserves raising brood. Artificial feeds, no matter what the suppliers claim, can only support one brood cycle and after that if nature does not provide the real thing, colonies suffer and dwindle.

In my experience, where I live, the earliest safe time to begin feeding, except for emergencies, is mid-March. That won't stop a lot of people, though, and some very good beekeepers do feed earlier.

In my tests, starting one month early with a few yards, I found that those yards did no better than those left alone and consumed considerable labour, patties, and syrup -- with no apparent benefit.

As for which patties, I prefer the high pollen variety, but one we put even one patty on, we must make sure they never run out until the middle of May.

[Colino]

Glad you brought that up Charlie, I was wondering the same thing. My girls were out flying in force yesterday.
https://youtu.be/CtiXcb8QyTU

[Biermann]

Hello,

My girls are busy too, some visited me at my shop and looked what I was doing.

I opened the lid and they are happy as can bee. I just leave them alone.

Colino, do you have the bottom wide open already?

Working on a new stand for four hives so I can strap them down if needed.

Thinking to point them southeast.

Cheers, Joerg

[Colino]

Hello,

My girls are busy too, some visited me at my shop and looked what I was doing.

I opened the lid and they are happy as can bee. I just leave them alone.

Colino, do you have the bottom wide open already?

Working on a new stand for four hives so I can strap them down if needed.

Thinking to point them southeast.

Cheers, Joerg

No I haven't opened them all the way up yet. Some are more open than others because of bad fitting reducers but they all are 50% closed more or less. I will be keeping an eye on the weather and clusters, if the clustetrs shrink too much I'll be restricting my top and bottom entrances more to compensate for smaller clusters. I've noticed that when the bees want less ventilation at night they will plug top entrances with their bodies.
As for direction I face mine east if possible, because around here all the swarms I've ever caught have been in east facing swarm traps.

[Biermann]

I noticed some of my bees come back with something on their legs, can't be pollen and it is dark color.

Tried to lift the back of my hive and it is still heavy, so must still have good food supplies.

They sure are nosy, had a green sweater on and the flew around me, inspecting what it was. Also, red and yellow equipment in the yard was surrounded by some. Interesting creatures.

Just have to love them.

Cheers, can't wait for April/May, Joerg

[Colino]

I noticed some of my bees come back with something on their legs, can't be pollen and it is dark color.

Tried to lift the back of my hive and it is still heavy, so must still have good food supplies.

They sure are nosy, had a green sweater on and the flew around me, inspecting what it was. Also, red and yellow equipment in the yard was surrounded by some. Interesting creatures.

Just have to love them.

Cheers, can't wait for April/May, Joerg

I've had them bring in different things in the spring, but never this early. I'm not sure what dark colored protein they would find around Vauxhall. Vance mentioned the other day that his neighbor had a creme colored pollen coming in. Last year my girls were bringing in something white that at first I thought was milk replacer but then I noticed that there were small pieces of wheat chaff hanging from their pollen baskets. The following week upon inspecting the hive I got a strong pleasant yeasty odor that smelled like bread dough. The only thing I can think of was one of my neighbors must have been grinding or cleaning wheat.
Look in your pasture when it starts to warm up more and see if you can find any patches of Phlox Hoodii. It is a small growing creeper type plant that is an important early season nectar/pollen for all pollinators even for the revered Monarch butterfly because its a food source on their migration. It flowers earlier than Dandelions and has the same orange colored pollen. It ranges from Alaska down to Arizona.https://fizzynotions.files.wordpress.co ... irie-2.jpg

[Charlie]

Because it was crazy warm in Calgary yesterday 64°F/17°C with very little wind I opened all my hives and threw in 2 1LB 15% protein patties. The one week hive last fall was wall-to-wall bees and very aggressive (it certainly will be re-queen for its current aggressiveness). This is somewhat surprising because last fall I was half expecting it to die during the winter. The other five hives looked like they were doing really well and not nearly as aggressive.

The decision to do this was made after I walked in the Fish Creek Park and looked at the Aspen trees and the buds are definitely swelling and beginning to separate. The trees will probably be starting to leaf within two weeks maybe three assuming that it doesn't get crazy cold. Last year the girls were bringing in pollen from the aspens first thing in the spring and I expect this year will be no different.

I'm still thinking because of the super El Niño we are going to get a crazy early spring in these parts and hopefully the weather won't have any tricks up its sleeve for mother nature and the bees. I do realize this is Alberta and it can dump two feet of snow in May. Time will tell whether or not this was a good decision or not but without any winter losses there is a degree of buffer if it turns out to be a bad decision.

This is the first winter where I have not lost a single hive, this would be so much more impressive if I had hundreds of hives instead of six.

Hopefully everyone will have similar results for winter losses regardless of the number of hives.

[Billir]

Newbie to the forum.
I have started to feed a 1/2 patties to my colonies and placing them close to the cluster but not on top, so in this unusually warm weather they can opportunistically feed on it during warm days. I will continue feeding them in this manner until they get seriously bigger. The primary reason for providing it at all is they are on mostly newly drawn comb and I am not confident of their own pollen stores. Fall for me was the end of a first year back after a 30 year + break and doing all the other infrastructure tasks that we must attend to so I was not a diligent as one might be.I am going to continue doing this until natural stores a coming in as suggested by Allan. With the cost of replacement bees one can put a bunch of patties into a hive before you come close to replacement cost.
Further - a friend in Kamloops has introduced me to Ambrosia Bee Fondant that comes from Germany. The bees really love it. It come in 2.5 kg vacuum sealed bags (advertised shelf life of 3 years). It is composed of glucose, fructose and sucrose with little HMF. I have some spare if anyone wishes to try it. $12,50 a bag $60 a box. Use- cut a hole in the bag and put it on the frames or over a hole in the crown board. I use the second option. Again opportunistic feeding trying not to over stimulate.
Thanks and enjoy the bee conversations here.

[Kens]

I'm assuming you have 2 or more brood boxes, did you put the pollen patties on only the upper most box?

[Charlie]

Post by Kens » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:07 am
I'm assuming you have 2 or more brood boxes, did you put the pollen patties on only the upper most box?

You are correct in your assumptions. The hives are all doubles and the Protein patties did go on the top, fortunately this year the bees were all at the top. Last year I had a hive where the brood was in the bottom box and needed to separate the boxes to install the patties.