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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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- From: "Thomas Grizzle" <griz AT mindspring.com>
- To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [ocba] Feeding - Sugar Concentration
- Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:52:06 -0400
Hey Y’all, I established one hive in Chapel Hill back in April and things are progressing nicely. I got a few pounds of bees and a caged queen from Busy Bee and set them into a new 10-frame Langstroth brood chamber with all new foundation. They immediately started drawing out the comb and I could tell that my population got much larger, and by now, >2 months later, it is rockin’. When I first set the bees into the hive I put a top feeder on and gave them the equivalent of 10 pounds of sugar in two feedings about a week apart. Then I stopped feeding them because I perceived that there was a lot of food and that good bees should be out looking for it. About 1 month into it, I put a second brood chamber on top of the first, then a medium super on top of that. I had not fed them for a while, but yesterday I noticed a lot of bees just hanging out on the “runway” not moving much, which to my small mind meant they lacked energy and might be hungry. So I gave them a quart of 1:2 sugar water. They swarmed all over the thing, seemed to really like it. This got me thinking, conventional wisdom is 1:2 in Spring, 1:1 sugar water in Fall. Given I have loaded these bees with 30 frames of foundation to draw out, why not give them 1:1 sugar water to speed things along? What is the rationale/wisdom behind this difference in sugar concentration at different times of the year, and what if I break with “tradition” and give the “wrong” concentration at other times of the year? What are the potential consequences? Thanks, y’all! Tom |
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[ocba] Feeding - Sugar Concentration,
Thomas Grizzle, 06/25/2012
- Re: [ocba] Feeding - Sugar Concentration, Randall Austin, 06/25/2012
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