Really Cold Weather on the Way
Here in South Carolina we get a little cold weather in January or February, but nothing too bad. That is normally. We have had affects from the polar vortex this week dropping temps into the teens with wind chills to 0. In order to prepare I wanted to make sure my bees had the best chance of survival. As you know they like to keep it 90 degrees around the queen at all times. In order to do this they flap their wings vigorously. This causes them to use energy that has to be replenished with food. Since I robbed them in the Summer I have to make sure they have plenty. I fed them sugar water in late fall so they could store it for winter but I don't want to use that with these freezing temperatures, so I feed them a solid over winter food. There are many different ones out there and many have nutrients and other things to help as well. They don't need much if any pollen as they are not making lots of brood. They mostly need carbs. We are just trying to get them to survive.
You can see I just put it right on the top of the frames. I even push some down between frames to make it easy to get to. You see the girls came up for a meal.
Also, we have to worry about the wind causing the hives to get very cold and causing them to have to work harder to keep it warm. Because of the unusually low temps I did something I haven't done before. I wrapped the hive in foam insulation. I know the keepers up North do this every year but in the South we normally don't have to.
