Welcome to 2025 and thank you for being along on this adventure in beekeeping with Queen's Orders Honey. A lot happened in 2024 with our business and we are looking for more of the same in this new year.
Whether this is your first year as beekeeper or are bee-curious and are considering a hive this year, we've got you covered! Starting in early spring, we will be posting about all the things happening in and around our apiaries in Charlotte, NC.
That said, this doesn't mean there is nothing happening with our hives now! We are experiencing some unusually colder temperatures here in the Charlotte, NC area. Honeybees can withstand some pretty cold temperatures but we're hoping it's not as bad as some of the weather we experienced a few years ago. You can read all about that here in another blogpost.
Fortunately for us and our bees, we're now much more experienced with this kind of weather and the challenges it brings to our bees. So far we've only lost three colonies to the cold. Compared with the dozens we lost in 2022 by this time of year, that is a major improvement!
What's our secret? It's simple!! Feed, feed, FEED!!!
While many beekeepers will tell you that the time to feed your bees is in the fall, they may only be half-right. The climate of Charlotte, NC is usually fairly warm. Even with colder night temperatures, we still experience temperatures warm enough for bees to fly around during the day. This means honeybees can STILL forage for food!
That is why we are currently feeding a heavy sugar syrup to our bees in the apiary. When the sun shines like it does on these hives, the bees are plenty warm to get out and bring home the goods that they so desperately need this time of year.
The main reason we experience a colony collapse is due to lack or resources. For example, we had one perfectly healthy and strong hive that ate all their food stores up and eventually starved. This reality was hard to embrace but also a great learning lesson.
Now we are super disciplined about checking our bees for stores, especially before a cold front moves in. There are a variety of ways we can feed our bees but the best we've found are using heavy sugar syrup (2:1 sugar:water) or with sugar bricks which we plan to make another blog post on soon.
And even if the temperatures outside aren't perfect for checking on your bees, if you have a feeling they might be in bad shape before a cold front moves in CHECK ON THEM!!! Here is another blogpost debunking the old myth that temperatures need to be above 55 degrees to inspect your bees.
While winter is always a slog to get through, we have so many things to be excited about this year! So happy you are along for this journey with us.
If you have any questions about beekeeping, how to get started or about our Hive Host program please ask away! These questions become much harder to answer in the full swing of spring.
Thanks for reading!
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