So, winter is supposedly in full swing. Here in Mississippi, it has been quite mild. I can probably count the number of really cold days on my two hands. The bees are confused, I think. We seem to get warm for several days, the bees come out, then the temp drops for a few days. Frustrating, but life I guess. I have been using my time to do a few other things…
I have decided that I am going to make a major effort to increase the number of colonies I have. I understand that I will sacrifice honey production, but I am ok with that. I intend to split each hive I have as many times as I can, and still keep them viable.
I generally get a good number of swarm removal calls, but have not had the best of luck getting them to stick around, so I have been doing some research on that. I don’t think I am feeding them for long enough. Another issue is I am just getting to where I have enough drawn comb to get a swarm a head start and not start from scratch.
I have spent a huge amount of time watching several great YouTube beekeepers. While I watch beekeepers from all over the world, I tend to focus on those in a similar climate as my own. As a result, I have honed in on 628DirtRooster and JPthebeeman. JP does a ton of cut outs and removals and tends to focus less on beekeeping than removing, but I have learned a TON on how to be better at removing bees. 628DirtRooster does it all. You can watch videos for just about every aspect of beekeeping with this guy. He is also really good about replying to comments/questions on his videos. To top it off, he is in my state, so his advice hits close to home. I have also started to watch Jeff Horchoff. Jeff is the keeper of bees at an abbey. I didn’t even know the abbey was there, it is a few minutes from my mom’s house. When I go visit her this summer, I am going to have to try to swing by and check out his operation. These guys are a little farther south than I am, but only a couple of hours.
Winter is also the time to get equipment built and repaired. I have been doing this as well. I have more hive bodies to build, and will be on that next week. I am also learning about raising queens. Initially they will be for my splits, but I may grow and venture into selling nucs/queens next year, so I am starting the learning now.
Use this time to get a head start. I have a feeling that with our mild winter, spring will get here early.
