E272 - Georgia Winter Visit with Anne Frey

This week on Honey Bee Obscura, Jim and Anne take listeners south — to Georgia — for a mid-winter comparison of beekeeping realities.

Anne recently visited beekeeping friends near the Atlanta latitude and found that while Georgia winters are milder than New York or Ohio, they come with their own management challenges. Unlike northern operations that rely heavily on solid winter feed, Georgia beekeepers depend on syrup feeding much of the year due to extended nectar dearths following an early June harvest.

Jim and Anne discuss the practical art of "hefting" colonies to estimate food stores, why wint...