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  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] New Bee Keeper seeking advice
  • Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 13:15:41 -0400 (EDT)

This is just a wild guess, but I would say that the colony is likely honey bound if you have been feeding all summer and just recently quit.  An inspection is in order. The bottom deep should have 6 to 8 frames of mostly brood, some pollen, and a couple of frames of honey towards the outside.  The 2nd box should have brood on the lower portions of the center frames with honey above and a couple of frames of honey on the outside.  If you are finding the brood nest frames full of honey, it is time to extract some of those and replace them to give the queen a place to lay.
 
Let's talk about when and why to feed for a moment.  Randall mentioned it within the last few weeks I believe.  The first reason to feed is to encourage your new colony to build comb on your new foundation.  The second reason would be to prevent starvation.  The third would be to stimulate the queen to lay during a dearth period.
 
For a new colony hived on foundation in April, I would estimate that about 3 to 5 gallons of sugar syrup should be sufficient to get your bees to draw out your 20 frames, but of course your mileage may vary.  It may require shuffling some of the outside frames towards the center of the nest as they tend to pay less attention to those outside frames.
 
Sometimes established colonies may need feeding during the dearth and those swarms that we catch in June will surely need feeding to get them on their feet.  During the dearth in July the queen may tend to slow down production so I like to feed about a gallon in mid July just to keep her motivated.  This gives me the forage force I need in mid to late August to
capitalize on the late summer/fall nectar.
 
I know as a first year beekeeper I absolutely spoiled my bees rotten with way too much sugar syrup.  I would say I even fed too much for the following 2 or 3 years.  At a certain point feeding became time consuming and expensive so I tried feeding less and less, and even sometimes not feeding enough.  I am still learning.  The important point is that you have to inspect your colony and determine from there if feeding is order.  Is there foundation that needs to be drawn?  Okay...Feed them (Caveat here is that bees are less and less motivated to draw comb as we get deeper in to the season, so feeding a colony in August to get them to draw comb can lead to a honey bound situation in the brood nest.  They are great comb builders in the spring, but it is downhill from there).  Will the bees starve to death before my next inspection?  If yes, feed.  If no, do not feed.  Is there honey in the middle of the brood nest? If yes, no need to feed and perhaps some honey needs to be removed from the brood nest.
 
I often hear folks recommend that new packages be fed until they quit taking the food and I believe this is terrible advice.  For me this is similar to advising parents to keep giving their children an allowance until they stop taking it.  Some children will go out in to the world and make their own way while others will take that allowance forever.
 
Inspect first to determine of feeding is required.  Decide from there.
 
Lewis
 
 
 
 

On September 8, 2014 at 9:38 AM Moses Carey <mcarey5 AT nc.rr.com> wrote:

The hive seen in the attachment (taken today at 8 am) was started in April.   The top medium super is loaded with honey and I have some hive beetles, but they appear manageable.  In the last two weeks, the bees have been gathering on the outside of the hive in day and night as seen on the attachment.  I stopped feeding them last week.  Is this behavior normal or does this mean:

1.      That I have problems with the hive?

2.      That they are about to swarm?

3.      That the hive is OK, but over populated and I need to add another super to give them more room to grow or just get inside during the night?

4.      Can the hive survive if I take the honey in the filled medium on top and replace with a new one?

 

Any advice would be helpful.

 

Moses Carey


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