Winter preparation hints and tips

[Adam]

A question for Rosie and Jon - and others too.

You both appear to have queens that have stopped laying quite early in the run-up to winter. I assume this is a trait of AMM's? And how do they take syrup feed.

The reason why I ask this is due to observations within my own apiary. My one colony of Italian extraction still has a warm crownboard and is busy producing bees. The carnis are less active brooding but still very busy. Both were still taking syrup until I stopped giving it.

The colonies I have that were derived from a dark, slow-spring-build-up queen do still have some brood (very little open now) but what is noticeable is that they have taken very little syrup of late. I wondered if I might have a nosema problem* with some hives and then it dawned on me that all the slow feeders were all from the same queen.


* It has been said that colonies with a heavy nosema infestation are poor at taking syrup. (I do need to check when I have time).

[Black Comb]

I have mainly dark bees but have 2 hives of little orange (but fairly prolific) so and so's, also one from a swarm that has an almost plain orange abdomen (buckfast type?). They have all behaved the same and are hardly laying. I blame the Apiguard followed by the bad weather in September. They all have combs to lay in (i.e. not all the frames are full of stores)
They have all taken down their full amount of feed.

[Jon]

Hi Adam.
Mine do not usually stop so early and often have brood until late October.
This September was very cool and wet.
Some of mine take down syrup very fast and others are reluctant.
I need to go looking for that nosema reference as well as I cannot remember where I read it.

[Rosie]

Usually I expect my heather bees to return from the moor with brood but this year they had next to none. I did not need to feed those but my others are taking food as normal. I find that colonies that are reluctant to take feed struggle through the winter, even with fondant, and emerge very weak. I have always assumed that nosema was the cause but have never treated as I don't want to encourage susceptible strains.

The bees I took to the moor, incidentally, were my least pure and all have yellow in some of their workers.

[nemphlar]

I don't do wing checks, but they're local and dark. I would always expect brood going into October and blame the thymol treatment i tried this year.