The Quack Shack

[Canadian Wind]

T-Shirt and shorts weather here yesterday! We hit 22° (72F) in the afternoon

That's where all the heat went! Give it back!!!

 

[Luv Ducks]

Thank you dear! I converted an Amish built children’s playhouse .
How is your flock doing?

I lost contact with this site for quite a while and have finally been able to find it again. I have missed it so much!!!! My flock is all doing fine. I did lose one Runner Duck strangly a while back and the only thing I can figure is she must have been egg bound. No other signs of being ill and everyone else is just fine. Hoping I will start getting notices again as I don't know what went wrong.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I lost contact with this site for quite a while and have finally been able to find it again. I have missed it so much!!!! My flock is all doing fine. I did lose one Runner Duck strangly a while back and the only thing I can figure is she must have been egg bound. No other signs of being ill and everyone else is just fine. Hoping I will start getting notices again as I don't know what went wrong.

 

[Luv Ducks]

The bees are protected against the wind, rain and snow. And they have a full bottle of Syrup.View attachment 4249055View attachment 4249056

How do you keep the syrup from freezing Frank? I had lost site of this site for quite a while and I am hoping that doesn't happen again to me.

 

[Supercow]

How do you keep the syrup from freezing Frank? I had lost site of this site for quite a while and I am hoping that doesn't happen again to me.

I read that in Canada or other colder parts of the world beekeepers simply use plain "dry" crystal sugar (some call it "the mountain camp method"). I have since started using it myself in February (the critical month in our climate) and it's going well. It is for sure very practical.

https://www.honeybeesuite.com/the-minimalist-guide-to-winter-feeding/

Unrelated but very relaxing: did 4 hours of blackberry cleanup today

The minimized duck flock (from 17 to 9) is doing very well. Since there are now fewer of them we let them explore the entire orchard. The Welshie girls are just as good at exploring and finding interesting stuff as the Khakis are.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I read that in Canada or other colder parts of the world beekeepers simply use plain "dry" crystal sugar (some call it "the mountain camp method"). I have since started using it myself in February (the critical month in our climate) and it's going well. It is for sure very practical.

https://www.honeybeesuite.com/the-minimalist-guide-to-winter-feeding/

Unrelated but very relaxing: did 4 hours of blackberry cleanup today

The minimized duck flock (from 17 to 9) is doing very well. Since there are now fewer of them we let them explore the entire orchard. The Welshie girls are just as good at exploring and finding interesting stuff as the Khakis are.

Thank you so much for responding to me as I did get this message. Now maybe I can get messages from this site. That is interesting that you can use the dry sugar which makes sense. Thanks againf or your response.

 

[Supercow]

Thank you so much for responding to me as I did get this message. Now maybe I can get messages from this site. That is interesting that you can use the dry sugar which makes sense. Thanks againf or your response.

It's true that the site's notifications can sometimes be a bit wonky... No more than other sites in general though. My experience has been quite OK.

The sugar will tide the bees over the critical period but it's not really something that should be fed over a large part of the year - nutritionally it doesn't really fit, it should be considered emergency feed only, in whichever form (granulated, syrup, etc).

Sadly, in the last several years we've had late frosts and other creative weather events so often that many beekeepers have just given up on relying on natural sources - they start feeding already in May (!!) ... Not very good prospects for hive health.