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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video we actually weighed our beehives with a scale. We did this to see exactly how heavy each colony was and to see how they each did over the course of the winter according to their weight. We also used this information to determine how much more feeding was needed for each colony. With more experience, using a scale is not necessary. This would not be practical with many more colonies. We did this because we didn't really know how to judge the weight of a colony by simply hefting it. Overall, it was well worth it to weigh these colonies, though we are not doing this currently in the 2023 season. Here are some things we learned in the 2022 fall/winter season; these things apply to our region (Orange, Virginia) for our 8 frame double deeps:
1. Colonies weighing 85 to 95 pounds did fine over the winter.
2. Colonies weighing less than 70 pounds are in the danger zone.
3. No colonies under 60 pounds survived the winter without emergency feeding.
4. “Take your losses in the fall” is good advice.
What was the justification for 8 frame equipment?
Liking the videos. Kinda has like an office farm vibe lol.
Well we take that as a huge complement!
We read some reports that 8 frame equipment might be a slightly more efficient size for the bees and may help them overwinter a little better. Also we decided to use all deeps, at least for now as we're growing our operation. So 8 frame supers are at least a little lighter to lug around than a 10 frame deep full of honey.
For the foreseeable future we'll be toting our colonies around by hand, loading our little truck by hand, etc. So with no forklift, slightly lighter seems slightly better. We're trying to grow to around 500 colonies this season. With all that said, we do have some 10 frame boxes and like them for building really strong queen rearing colonies.
Oh yeah definitely a compliment!
Good luck and looking forward to keeping up.
Nuc making video was what caught my attention 1st. Have now watch almost all of them.