# Indoor wintering - set them out



## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Same here Ian. Set out the 48 hives I wintered here last weekend along with an open drum of syrup and dry pollen sub. Seems odd to have bees out flying when there's still a little snow and people are still driving on the lakes!


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## PineCreekBees (Jun 21, 2011)

Ian, why did you decide to move your bees out? What temp swings are you seeing know? Is there anything producing pollen yet? We probably have similar conditions here its just further south but at 7,500' so it is still winter-like some days. Yesterday, I worked up on a ski course and it is trying to snow here but not cold. We have a week of cooler temps coming but then back to the warming trend.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

We have seen a mild spell of double digits for nearly a week, lows above freezing. Shed temps would of been out of control. 
It's a blessing because it has allowed me to quickly assess my hives for stores, emergency feeding some of these hives that are a week from running out of feed. 10% have been in immediate feed attention, lost 2% to starvation. 

Might be taking them back in mid week... Lol


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## johnbeejohn (Jun 30, 2013)

wow ian everyone of your post are great you really got it goin on up there in canada what were your lossed when wintering outside


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I move to indoor wintering mainly due to rodent damage .... And -35 degree wind swept winters ... Lol
I can comment on differences of losses, too many variables


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## marios (Nov 20, 2012)

wow what date did you set them out last year


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

April 1 last year


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## hex0rz (Jan 14, 2014)

I'd love to see you make a thread on how a season goes for you.. This is a good start! Hint, hint!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Hives going into the shed at 100 lbs, coming out at 35-40 lbs. emergency feeding the 20 lbs hives with a couple frames of honey. I weigh a few hives per yard to get a feel of weight then heft the yard to quickly assess stores. I've caught huge hives sitting on scraps of honey but only a few. 



Soy flour set out to feed on 



www.stepplerfarms.com


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Very nice! Thanks for posting. Seems like you've got a great system.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Ian,

Nice looking hives. What are the white labels on the free by of the hives? Record keeping system?


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

Looking good Ian! Are you breathing a little easier?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

zhiv9 said:


> Ian,
> 
> Nice looking hives. What are the white labels on the free by of the hives? Record keeping system?


Hive tagged to track my queens. It gives me the ability to monitor performance to queen types age and so on while mixed up and stacked in storage. Also gives a little bit more information during spring queen assessments.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

JSL said:


> Looking good Ian! Are you breathing a little easier?


Slightly... these next few weeks will determine my hives fate... I'll be checking nosema counts later this week. I was initially planning to treat but my focus shifted on emergency feeding and we just got that done before the cold settled back in

But they look awesome, and they had a good 4 days of flight, so those are positives.


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## northernpike (Mar 27, 2014)

Ian is that straight soy flour or a mix?


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

Ian, FYI. Here, South of you in the Minneapolis St. Paul region they are bringing in pollen from the Silver Maples. I don't know how far behind us you are, but spring is coming.


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## ABruce (Dec 27, 2013)

Ian, are you checking what kind of nosema your dealing with? Does it cause you to change your treatment? Just wondering I saw a presentation the past weekend that stated Ceranae had almost replaced Apis in Western Canada. 
Great pictures, thanks for sharing


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

very cool ian. pun intended. congrats.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

northernpike said:


> Ian is that straight soy flour or a mix?


Interesting thing, the straight soy flour was taken the quickest..


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

ABruce said:


> Ian, are you checking what kind of nosema your dealing with? Does it cause you to change your treatment? Just wondering I saw a presentation the past weekend that stated Ceranae had almost replaced Apis in Western Canada.
> Great pictures, thanks for sharing


Testing confirmed, ceranae. Maybe not exclusively but predominately


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Ian said:


> coming out at 35-40 lbs. emergency feeding the 20 lbs hives with a couple frames
> ]


Correction >> I typed lbs when I meant Kg... The hives went in 100 lbs, and are leaving the shed at 75-85 lbs, emergency feeding 40 lbs hives


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

ah, that makes more sense ian. do they start brooding while still in the shed?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

squarepeg said:


> ah, that makes more sense ian. do they start brooding while still in the shed?


It's that metric imperial conversion we have up here... Half the time I use metric, half the time I use imperial... Hmmm lol

I looked, and made a point to randomly check when I had the opportunity ... And no... I fo not call a fist size scattered pattern brooding. Two days after put out, she has 500-1000 eggs laid, 4 days after out you can see a glistening to the frames :thumbsup:


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

amazing. at what point do you shake the colony down into an empty bottom deep? and do you shake all of the frames or mostly until you find the queen and shake her down?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

That's done just as we anticipate the flow. I shake so I can employ a crew, up to 5 st a time. Mostly kids so looking for the queen is useless. My experienced staffers will quickly check as we go, find her sometimes, but after a few long days and a few hundred hives we get tired and just shake shake shake. Queen losses and missed queens run under 1%, much better than smoke and fumes!!!


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

that makes perfect sense ian, many thanks for the replies, and again way to go on your successes. i'm predicting having taken control of your queenrearing is going to see you some gains from that as well.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I hope my queen rearing program falls into place as my supplemental feeding program has...
Here is one of my freshly mixed batches put on Sunday. The bees are fighting over the bar stools!

www.stepplerfarms.com


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

... feels weird getting complemented on success... Lol. 
I hope all of you realize I'm on the brink of failure ALL YEAR long! Pretty sure I convey that aswell.
It's all about putting the puzzle pieces together.


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## Brian Suchan (Apr 6, 2005)

Brink of failure? It has looked like a top notch outfit over the years!!


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Ian said:


> I hope all of you realize I'm on the brink of failure


Pretty sure that a lot of folks would that level of failure all day long.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

...and now bringing them all in...

www.stepplerfarms.com


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Just think of all the healthy exercise you are getting.

As my wife said last week, 'The plumping season is over...'


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

You were just looking for an excuse to play with your new truck. ;-)


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Ha ha ha, yes and yes. 
As you can see, work doesn't scare this farmstead!


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Sounds like you have "old dog syndrome". When they are in they want out, and vise versa.

But on the bright side, with this early start, you have a good shot at a bumper crop of mites.

Crazy Roiand


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Maybe, but my counts still are as close to zero as can be. It's a good start for the bees, that cleaning flight sure settled them down. I'm sampling for nosema counts tomorrow

That "old dog syndrome" is what we call Canadian weather ... Ha ha


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

Ian , is the snow on the hives a concern for added moisture/ RH in your winter building ? I see the bulk of it is being pushed off, I am just curious. I really love that truck !!

We are getting a Nor'easter in a couple of days, winter just keeps showing it's face LOL


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Ben Little said:


> Ian , is the snow on the hives a concern for added moisture/ RH in your winter building ? I see the bulk of it is being pushed off, I am just curious. I really love that truck !!
> 
> We are getting a Nor'easter in a couple of days, winter just keeps showing it's face LOL


Like you mentioned, the majority is swept off, and I make sure snow is off the fronts to avoid melt water from spreading nosema infection. I have a floor drain and the fans are on 100% to keep them cool so that melt water has no effect on the rooms RH.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

So you gave all a bit of fresh air, saved a few from starvation. Huh, the joys of beekeeping. Nosemae sure likes truck rides or airplane rides. Numbers generally spike after those events.

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Nosema also dominates a late winter 17 degree winter shed, and dwindles down hives sitting out in cold wet windy March weather... the joys of beekeeping indeed 

I don't know what my nosema counts will do and it has me worried but I can tell you those 5 days of flight has settled down the hives (which are now again in the shed) to the state of early winter calmness. That timely cleanse ended those "bust out" hives I was finding

I can tell you honestly, if I had the option to move them all out beginning of March to move them back every year, I'd do it everytime ! 



Doors open and the shed motionless "settled"


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

I suppose snow can prevent the task of in and out some winters? I also suppose the bees would not get the flying oppotunity like just happened this year?

I know from personnal experience that bad things can happen when you hold it in for a long time 

Looks like you have a bunch of extra room in the shed for more bees Ian.

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

jean-marc said:


> I suppose snow can prevent the task of in and out some winters? I also suppose the bees would not get the flying oppotunity like just happened this year?
> 
> I know from personnal experience that bad things can happen when you hold it in for a long time
> 
> ...


It's all a work load issue... How many days of beneficial flight for the work to move them in and out. Ysrds 6 miles away. Most years the dynamics don't line up but this year 5 days of over 15 degrees forced mine out... many held them through somehow.

Don't tell my wife that room is planned to be filled.. Lol!


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Ian said:


> Don't tell my wife that room is planned to be filled.. Lol!


And you think she hasn't figured that out already ?????


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

Ian, how do you stack them up so nice and neat in your wintering shed. Looked like you use a boom loader off your truck but you must have a forklift somewhere? 

Left my bees out but they are doubles and still in the wraps they spent the winter inside. Have a load of bees coming back from California in about a week so it's time to go back to work!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I rent this machine every season


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## Chip Euliss (Sep 2, 2010)

i figured you must have one or some have some really strong helpers with better backs than mine


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Ian, you are saying that because the bees had the opportunity to fly and defecate for 4 days, they are no longer anging out of the boxes. They certainly appear all snug and cozy now that they ave been returned to the shed.

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Yes I think so, having trouble keeping the temps down than before I moved them out. **** March weather is upon us...


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## Dave Burrup (Jul 22, 2008)

Ian how many hives did you winter?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

1000 singles 200 nucs


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