🐝 The Overwintered Nuc System - Episode 10 - Nearly Ready for Heavy 2:1 Feeding

We're on to episode 10 of the Making Splits for Winter series, and the nucs are very, very nearly ready for heavy 2:1 feeding. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. On to episode 10 of the Making Splits for Winter series. This is going to be the final video before we move on to episode 11, which will be heavy 2:1 feeding. It's been about 2 and a half weeks since I did the last video in this one, and we're coming towards the end of September here in North Wales. I'm getting to the point where I'm kind of thinking I want to start feeding now, maybe a week away, maybe 2 weeks away. At the moment it's 19, 20 degrees in the day, the ivy's starting to come out, and the bees are on a little bit of a flow. They're not adding a huge amount of weight, it's just coming on really, really nice and gentle. Next week, however, the forecast is 14 degrees, Loads and loads of rain. So I've taken that as a trigger that I need to move on to the next step because it's going to be raining, it's going to be cold, the bees are going to be confined to that space, they're going to be eating the stores that are there, the cows are going to be mooing as they always do in this apiary, and it's the right time of the year to get them ready and get them up to weight for winter. However, that's episode 11. We'll talk about that one next week. This week I just want to show you the state of the colony, how much it's come on in 2 and a half weeks since I did the last video. How the change from fondant feeding back to 1:1 syrup feeding has resulted in an increased amount of brood. And then next week we should really see the bees starting to boil over. You're into that kind of 3.5-week, 4-week period from when you make a change in terms of going from fondant to syrup feeding, where you're going to start seeing that real boost in the number of bees. But I'm hoping when we get in there today, we're going to see a good amount of bees in there, going to be a decent amount of weight. And I'm going to get them to the point where they're very, very nearly ready to go into winter. So let's get into the colony, take a look, see how they're coming on. So you can tell the bees are enjoying themselves. It's half 6, it's the last week of September, and they're out foraging. They're still out going for it. They're definitely on the ivy. You can see it from the pollen that's coming into the hive, coming into the entrance. There's fresh nectar on the frames, really, really good to see. Saving me money on feed. Every single day that goes by in late September, early October, where it's warm, say above 15 or 16 degrees, probably even less than that as well, they will fly at lower temperatures than that at this time of year. Saving me money with feed. They're gonna pile in all of that ivy nectar and it's gonna save me on sugar syrup. So first thing I'm doing this time of year is I'm lifting it up. I wanna feel and I wanna gauge where they are for winter. And the best way of doing that is to do it throughout the season. Just lift up that box there, see what they're feeling like. When these are ready for winter, I'll do the weights and I'll show you the weights, because all of the poly boxes, there's not much in it at all. I will weigh these and I'll get them to the point and I'll tell you how much they should weigh roughly going into winter. But you need to get into a habit of hefting them and feeling where they are. And I can immediately feel from that there is a good amount of weight in this colony. If you go back to last episode, they were really, really light. They didn't have any stores. We went on to trickle feeding, but we actually went in and filled that feeder up because they really needed a good glug of syrup. Not only have they taken that syrup down, it'll be in the frames or in the feeder, but you can just sense from lifting that up that they've moved on in the 2 and a half, 3 weeks since we last did this video. And I think we're going to see a lot of bees in here, and we're going to see a lot of Get into the habit though, hefting them, see what they feel like, and you can adjust your strategy based upon how they feel. Let's get inside, see what they're doing. Now this is what we're talking about. I'm so happy, you can sense it from my voice. This is what nucs should look like going into winter. Middle of September, back end of September, early October. I say all those dates because it does vary in terms of where you are in the country. But this is what you want your bees looking like before you start feeding 2:1 sugar syrup. And I know you need to get in there, we're going to take a look at the frames of brood because they could just be full of stores anyway, but I know they won't be. I know there'll be lots of brood in here because I've been going into this colony, seeing what's going on all the way throughout that winter build-up. But this is exactly what you want to see, really, really nice strong colony of bees. Over all 6 frames now. You want the box full. That's always what you're trying to achieve with this. That's why we slowed them down, sped them up, put the fondant in, put the syrup in. All of the syrup's gone, not a single bit of that left. All of the weight is within the frames. And I'm going to pick a couple of frames out now and I'm going to show you what they're looking like. I'm going to show you that brood pattern as well. And then that's it, we're pretty much done. The bees are fed, they've got their varroa strips in, they're queen right, they're a good weight, and now it's just a waiting game until they're ready to go into that 2:1 heavy feeding phase to get them up to weight for winter. And then you can just close them up and wait until you have to take that Apivar strip out, and then that's it, they're done until winter. So I think you'll agree they are looking fantastic. Like, this is what I strive to get on all of my nucs— big strong nucs. You don't want to open them up at the end of September and you see 2 frames of brood or 1 frame of brood and 3 frames of bees and empty foundation. If you're seeing that, you've left it too late, and what you need to think about doing then is dummying it down and seeing if you can get a smaller colony like that through winter. It's definitely more difficult getting a small colony like that through winter than a big colony like this that's stuffed full into a poly nuc. These go through winter Better than the colonies even. Poly nucs that are jam-packed full, over 4 to 5 frames of brood, that are really, really heavy when you pick them up, that have been treated for varroa. That's how you get your colonies through the winter, and this is what you need to strive for in terms of how they look, how they feel, and you'll have really, really good overwintering success. I'll get in though, I'll show you some of those frames, and I'll just show you the difference in terms of the brood pattern, the pollen that's gone in there, The ring of stores around that brood in comparison to where they were about 3 weeks ago. So there we go, look at the frame. Lots and lots of brood, really nice ring of nectar that's come in there, lots of capped stores as well, but that is pretty much perfect. That's what you want your frames of brood to be looking like, maybe 75, 80% full of brood and then a little bit of capped stores in there as well. That's a healthy frame for mid to late September. Same as the next frame down here, don't read into the brood pattern. All of those empty cells there are full of eggs, full of larvae, but you can see very similar pattern, 70 or 80% brood and then a nice ring of capped stores as well. So next frame along there, got some nice nectar coming in, still a little bit of space which is not the end of the world. You don't It doesn't matter if you've got a little bit of space like this at this time of the year. Still a decent amount of brood on here, probably 50% on this frame, and a good amount of capped stores as well. So that's a really good-looking outside frame here as well. And then my other outside frame, we're still not perfect. We've still got that space to get them up to weight for winter, but you can see if we were to go in there early and feed 2:1, these frames here, they'd just be jam-packed full of stores. There'd be no space and you wouldn't have a box full of bees because you'd have a box full of stores instead. You need to allow the bees that space to grow and to get this big, and a little bit of space isn't the end of the world because what we're going to do in a week's time, a couple of weeks' time maybe, we're going to come back, we're going to backfill all of this space with invert syrup, which they don't even need to cap over, so you can do it really late on in the year. If you're going into your colonies to check to see what the brood's like, to check to see anything, to Feed at this time of year and you're taking frames out, take the opportunity just to scrape that— any propolis or any wax off the Apivar. Get your Apivar strip, scratch it down. It kind of seems to revitalize it, and then reposition it over a fresh piece of capped brood as well. You want it in the most busy part of the brood, and where you've put it, they might have stuck it down. It really does help just to move it around a little bit to follow the brood around. Will give you much better efficacy in terms of the varroa drop. And that's the colony completely finished. So that is what they're going to look like when I start to move on to feeding, and I'll do that in a week or 2 weeks. I really will wait and see what's going on with the weather. If you're getting to the point and it's back end of September and it's raining loads, there's not much stores in there, you can move on to 2:1 syrup feeding now. My point is that you don't want to do it in the middle of August. Back end of September, first week of October, that seems to work about right for me. But just make sure the colonies are nice and big and strong, over 4 to 5 frames of brood before you start feeding them with syrup. So there we go. Colony is looking fantastic. That is exactly what I want to see this time of year. They're on around 4 to 5 frames of brood, which is perfect. It really is a good number to aim for. There's good weight in the box. They've definitely found the ivy. There's a pollen flow going on as well, bringing in loads of pollen in the daytime. They're condensing the brood nest down naturally now, so all of the frames We've got a nice ring of stores. They really are absolutely perfect in my view. If your nucs are looking like that end of September, you are going to have very good overwintering performance. Don't forget though, move on to 2:1 syrup feeding. That's going to be covered in the next episode. The only other thing not to forget is take your Apivar strips out. Don't leave them in over the year. So I hope you enjoyed that video. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video. And I'll see you next time. Bye.