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ocba - [ocba] hive ready for winter?

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Alicia Reenders <a.reenders AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] hive ready for winter?
  • Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:19:54 -0400

Hello bee friends!

I have a few questions about my last hive inspection. They look great, lots of bees and lots of brood and eggs! The neightbor has a field of buckwheat that just finished flowering, and will flower for the second time in a few weeks I think. So there's quite a bit of honey and nectar. But there is kind of a "sour honey" smell in the hives. Not anything really bad smelling, but kind of like extra strong honey/wax/bee smell with a slight sourness to it. I feel like I might remember that buckwheat honey can smell strong, or do I have something else going on? Everything looked really good...

Also, one hive has 2 deep boxes, and the top one is very full of brood/honey. I can hardly lift it! The bottom still looks ok, with some brood and honey, but not as much, and maybe 3 empty frames. I have lots of baby bees so I wonder if they just emerged. But is this a good set-up for winter? Should I reverse the boxes for any reason, or is it ok to have most everything in the top box? Should I feed to completely fill that bottom box? I haven't fed in a while since there's so much brood and also quite a bit of honey and pollen.

Thanks for your comments!

-Alicia



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