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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: MarilynMark Clark <wazazi.wa.binti AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Adding hive bodies
  • Date: Mon, 20 May 2013 11:09:29 -0400


Mark,

Re: "is it possible that a 3-pound package can produce 'crowded' conditions before any brood has hatched?" Yes, especially if the hive becomes honey-bound (clogged up with so much nectar/honey that there aren't many empty cells for the queen to lay in). But you are going to keep an eye on nectar/honey storage and brood-rearing to make sure that there is a sufficient amount of empty space, right? A gang-buster queen can fill up a deep with brood in a fairly short time. Judge how quickly she is filling frames and plan accordingly.

Folks in this area typically over-winter in double deeps or a deep plus a medium (Illinois super). Now is the time to get those drawn out. So if your bees are cranking out new comb, I would go ahead and put foundation on and ask them to pull it out.

Do keep an eye out for small hive beetles. But for me anyway, they haven't been an issue yet this year, even in my small nucs (unlike last year when they were abundant in March!). Hive beetles are excellent fliers with a terrific sense of smell and they will find your hives sooner or later. A few small hive beetles here and there are expected in this area and can largely be ignored. What you don't want to see are dozens (or hundreds) at a time. That would definitely be an indication that there is too much space for the amount of bees you have. And of course it is better to prevent rather than correct problems. But how much space is "too much" or "too little" is something that must be based on your own experience in your own hives.

Randall Austin


On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:30 AM, MarilynMark Clark <wazazi.wa.binti AT gmail.com> wrote:
Finally able to check my two hives today from when I installed  Bailey's 3-pound packages on May 11.  Of course by now I had a full frame's worth of burr comb attached to my feeders where the 10th frame was removed for the queen cage.  Found both queens out of their cages and doing fine.  Removed the burr comb and added a frame of undrawn foundation, the other nine frames in both hives contained drawn comb from previous hives though no honey or nectar.  I am still feeding and the hive boxes are 10-frame full size.  Most of the frames were covered with bees (!?) from the 3 pound packages.  I am inclined to add a hive body (Illinois) especially with all the rain keeping the girls at home, but is it possible that a 3-pound package can produce "crowded" conditions before any brood has hatched?  Need I worry about too much space because of hive beetles even with packaged bees?  I would not worry about hive beetles in WV and add additional boxes without hesitation, but here ... ?

As usual, thank you in advance,

Mark

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