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Jan - Feb 2024

This information is for the North Alabama area. If you are a novice beekeeper in other parts of the world, join a local beekeeping association and ask known-experienced beekeepers for similar advice. If unfamiliar with your advice giver, check his credentials with other beekeepers. Beekeepers with little experience have a tenancy to give advice that might well be bad! I find that the best advice is based on experience and not necessarily education. All advice in this post is intended for the novice beekeeper.
More experienced beekeepers may have the skills to attempt practices not recommended for the novice.

2/18/2024 Update:

Start thinking "Swarm Traps". If you have dead outs with old black and/or damaged combs, consider saving them for use in swarm traps. There are tons of YouTube channels offering advice on setting up swarm traps or you can take a look at a PowerPoint program that I used in a presentation back in 2010.

2/7/2024 Update:

Red maple is in full bloom in south Huntsville Alabama and the temperature is around 60°F, however I am not seeing a lot of bees working Red maple. That could indicate that there is some other better nectar source available however I am not seeing the normal amount of pollen coming into my hives. That is an indicator that my bees may not be as strong as in past years.

Check your hives for stores. Right now is the most critical time for starvation, so feed if needed.

If your hives are light, and you do not plan on making splits, I recommend feeding 2:1 sugar syrup however if you do plan on splitting the hive I recommend 1:1 sugar syrup. 1:1 syrup will stimulate brood production so you have to keep feeding, if needed, and if you do not split, your bees will very likely swarm.

Bottom line, you want your hive bustling with bees at the beginning of nectar flow however too many bees is a major contributor to swarming so if you feed 1:1 now and do not split the hive it will likely swarm leaving you with 2 hives, if you catch the swarm, and very little honey to harvest.

1/31/2024 Update:

Red maple buds are starting to swell in south Huntsville AL.  Red Maple is the normal first stimulator in this area for spring build up so start checking your hives for stores. These new young brood will be hungry.

From now until March (in north Huntsville, AL) is the prime time for starvation. So, start checking for stores soon and feeds if needed. If you do not need feed, do not feed.

If you feed 1:1 or weaker sugar water you will artificially stimulate brood rearing. That is a good thing, IF YOU CAN KEEP THOSE BEES IN THE HIVE and not swarming into the local trees. The problem with lots of bees in early spring is swarming.

If you plan on making splits then stimulating the brood is a good thing - if you follow through on splitting.

In my opinion, it is too early to stimulate brood. Should we have some real cold weather (as we did in early January this year) and you stimulate, you are likely to have brood kill.

Normally a year with spring winter kill result in a good honey production year because the weakened hives are less likely to swarm.

This chart might help you decide when the major starvation period and swarming season is in north Alabama. Substitute the actual date that Red Maple blooms in your area.

1/9/2024 Update:

Check your hivees for food stores. To check, lift one side and then the other to get a feel for the weight. If it is light, you need to feed by whatever method works best for you. click here for some feeding options.

If your bees do not need feed, do not feed.

If you use a "thru hole" inner cover feeder, make sure the holes in the feeder lid are appropriate for the viscosity of the syrup you are feeding.  Generally, an appropriate size is that made by a regular frame nail.  Whatever hole size you use, make sure the bees can draw the liquid out on the coldest day.  I use larger holes all year but if the feeder lid is left in place after the syrup has been consumed, the bees will normally porpoise the feeder holes. To control the flow, in winter, I leave all but 5 holes propozed so that there are only 5 holes available for the syrup to exit. Too many or too large holes, in changing weather, can cause the cold syrup to rain down on the cluster and or leak out the front entrance onto the ground. If the latter happens it is likely that there will be holes dug in the ground by raccoons to get at the sugar.

I recommend feeding 2:1 sugar syrup at this time of year. The higher the sugar to waters ratio, the quicker the syrup will crystallize so check your external feeders often, if the syrup has crystallized, replace the feeder immediately with fresh liquid and consider lowering the sugar to water ratio.  Usually warming the crystallized feed will re-liquefy it.

Fructose 55 corn syrup it is roughly 3:1 solids to liquid. Click here for mixing guidelines for various solids to water ratios.

In north Alabama, winter feed is meant to prevent starvation and not for the bees to store.

General information

1. Make sure any medication left in your hives is removed on time (see manufacturer's instruction for time in hive).
   1. Get all fall 2024 medication out of your hives 4 weeks (or whatever the medication manufacturer recommends) before putting honey supers on.
2. Check all of your hives for food stores and feed if necessary.
   
   1. A good way to check is to “heft” you hives, which means to lift one side then the other. If the hive feels light, you need to feed it. If you check the hives often enough, you will become familiar with the weights that are in the normal range and with those that are not. Comparing the weights of different hives is another good way to determine the amount of stores. If you find a hive or two that’s unusually light, you need to feed. A surplus of 60 pounds is a good goal.
   1. Do not use Boardman Feeders (those that slip in the bottom board entrance) in cold weather. Bees cluster in cold weather and can not move outside the hive to get the food. Boardman feeders are also notorious for causing robbing and they attract ants and raccoons. Boardman feeders work best if placed on top of the inner cover with their "bee entrance" near the vent hole, then place an empty super between the inner and outer cover to seal out robbers. This is only recommended in pretty warm weather when the bees can break cluster.
   2. Frame feeders (division board feeders) are OK except a frame has to be removed to put one in (i.e...they replace a frame). Their disadvantage is that you have to open the hive to fill them or just to see if feed is needed. They will generally drown some bees. If you do not take them out during a honey flow, the bees will likely build comb inside them.
   3. Baggie feeders, a Baggie Feeder is a Zip Lock plastic bag filled with sugar syrup with holes cut for the bees to get the syrup.    I do not recommend them at all for survival feeding because the bees have to break cluster to get to the syrup and they can not do that in really cold weather.
   1. Bill Mullins developed a very good procedure for filling the plastic Zip Lock bag whereby the empty bag is placed inside a 2 lb. coffee can or equal. Then fill the baggie to the top of the can. Then zip the bag and remove the baggie with syrup, place it in the hive and cut several slits in the top side. This procedure is most effective when working on the tailgate of your truck.
   2. I recommend the Baggie feeders bee placed on top of a queen excluder instead of directly over the top bars. This will allow you to remove the baggie with holes and liquid inside without spilling the liquid.
   3. A feeder rim (spacer) must be used to surround the bag above the brood to allow space for the bees to get at the syrup awhile preventing ants and robbers from getting at the syrup.
3. If you checked for stores recently – do it again and do it often. In warm winter weather the bees will fly more thus using their stores more rapidly.
4. For survival feeding; feed as strong a mixture of sugar to water as you can for your particular feeder.
5. To stimulation brood rearing; feed a 50/50 mixture (by weight or volume, they are almost the same) of sugar to water. If you opt to stimulate brood rearing, start feeding the weak mixture around mid February in north Alabama and be prepared to make splits or to hive swarms.
6. I find that 3 gallon of water mixed with 50 lbs. of sugar makes a saturated mix (about 2:1) however in the cold winter weather the water needs to be increased to 3 1/2 gallons of water to 50 lbs. of sugar to prevent the syrup from crystallizing in the jar if an external feeder jar is used. Click here for general feeding sugar to water mix ratios.
7. If you opt to stimulate feed, consult an experienced local knowledgeable beekeeper for advice. The goal of stimulation feeding is to try and get large populations of worker bees at the beginning of the bloom season. That is a noble goal but large volumes of bees (crowding) appears to be a major factor in swarm preparation. Stimulation feeding works very well if you plan on making splits and you do make them early.
8. You can Include Fumidil-B or Fumigillin (same chemical but easier to mix) in your feed syrup. In past years Fumidil-B was prescribed to prevent Norseman apis. Norseman apis has not been a known real problem in north Alabama due primarily to our warm winters however we now have to be a little concerned about Norseman ceranae. I no longer treat for either ceranae or apis.
9. I know of no cases of Noseman ceranae in Alabama but other parts of the US is reporting colony loses due to Norseman ceranae.

1. What to feed options.
   1. There are several options for the type of feed to use. You can use Fructose 55, which is very convenient, and consists of 77% dissolved solids and 23% water, by weight. The solids are Fructose 55%, Dextrose 40% and other sugars 5%. That means it has a combined sugar/water ratio of over 3 to 1. If you want to use this in a 1 to 1 ratio to stimulate brood rearing, you need to add four parts water to five parts Fructose 55 by volume. In other words, for every 5 gallons of Fructose55 you use, mix 4 gallons of water to achieve a sugar/water ratio of 1 to 1.  Since it is 3:1, it is a very thick syrup so you may need to adjust the hole size in your feeder (particularly, if a hive top feeder is used).
   2. Another option is to simply use sugar. Granulated sugar can be placed on the top bars but it can attract ants.
   3. Another option is to use honey. Old honey, from dead hives or honey taken from a wax-melter is often used for bee feed (I prefer not to feed honey that has been heated to a high temperature, as a wax melter might). A problem with used or old honey is there may be foulbrood spores or other disease in it that can infect the colony. If you know the source of the honey and are confident it is not infected, it will make a good feed for a weak hive. BUT USE WITH CAUTION!
2. Start getting ready for spring; it is just around the corner.
   1. Get queens, packages and or splits on order ASAP. Make sure you know who you are getting splits from as this can be a way to gain diseases and beetles.
   2. Place no orders for splits from any supplier until you have verified the quality of the splits.
   3. If in doubt, contact the regional Alabama State Bee Inspector and ask if the source you are considering has been inspected and passed or is certified. If they have not, don't buy the bees.
   4. Since Alabama is a closed boarder state, it is illegal to bring splits into Alabama from other states. This is a good thing and may well be the reason that no known cases of Norseman ceranae have been reported in Alabama to date.
   5. Remove, render or dispose of old black comb from frames that are not now in hives. If you set up "bait hives" in the spring, you might consider saving any old dark combs as the bees seem to prefer old dark combs (Click here for a PowerPoint presentation on setting up a bait hive). To store old dark combs, you may need to treat them with Para dichlorobenzene (moth crystals) to keep wax moths out. It has been my experience that combs that have been treated with Para dichlorobenzene and then "well aired out" are very attractive to swarm scout bees as are the paper combs left from rendering the beeswax out in a solar wax melter.
   6. Check your yard for “dead outs”. Get them out of the yard now and clean them up ready for re-use. Equipment is normally safe to reuse as long as it was not infected with American Foulbrood.
   7. Old, black comb makes excellent fireplace starter material. Use it sparingly as a little goes a long way. Also I have no idea if and to what degree it might add creosote to your chimney.
   8. Old black comb is also very good to use in swarm traps (bait hives), per above and now is the time to get your swarm traps (bait hives) in order for spring swarms.
   9. Get old frames cleaned, wired and ready for foundation particularly for your swarm collection hives and new start colonies (hold off on installing foundation until as close as possible to actual need – the bees seem to like the fresh wax smell).
3. Get your order placed ASAP for new wood that will need to be painted.
   1. Get the wood painted so the paint can cure before you install bees. (Hives and related wood ware need not be painted on the inside, just the surface that will be exposed to weather. However, no harm will likely come from painting inside. It is a good idea to paint both sides of a reversible bottom board and the wood on "wood framed" queen excluders).
   2. If you are using soft wood, it is best to dip (not soak) the corners (end grain) of all surfaces exposed to the weather in Copper Napthanate (wood preserver) and let them dry thoroughly before building. Make sure you use a wood preserver that can be painted over. It has been my experience in the last few years that soaking wood in Copper Napthanate will cause soft wood to absorb too much Copper Napthanate. The excess Copper Napthanate will bleed through the paint when exposed to summer heat. It appears the manufactures of Copper Napthanate have improved its ability to penetrating soft wood.
   3. I find that soaking the corners of "built supers" results in the Copper Napthanate (wood preserver) softening the glue. That's why I recommend dipping the corners, let them dry and then build.
   4. If you use cypress wood, Copper Napthanate is not required but can be used. You do not really have to paint cypress but I recommend that you do. I apply 2 coats of a quality oil base primer and 2 coats of a quality Latex paint to all of my wood ware. CAUTION If you paint only with latex paint (no oil), I recommend that you use galvanized nails or similar screws. The water in latex will cause "non galvanized" nail heads to rust and the paint on the nail heads will fall out over time and allow moisture to enter the wood.
4. Winters are normally pretty mild here in north Alabama so worry more about keeping the bees dry than keeping them warm. Ventilation is far more important than trying to keep honey bees warm.
5. If you use spacers between your inner and outer covers for ventilation, I recommend that you use square sticks especially during the summer months. You should consider using one in front and one in back. I use anywhere from ¼ inch to ½ inch square spacers year round. You need both the front and back separated to allow the bees access so they can police ants, roaches and the like. If only one spacer is used at the front, there will be space as you approach the back where beetles can hide and the bees can not get to them. Your spacers need to be square for the same reason, round sticks allow spaces for beetles to hide.
6. Do not go into the hives at this time unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

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Last Update: 2/18/2024 brf