Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - [ocba] honey/brood ratio & quantities before extracting?

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Margaret Krome-Lukens <mskromelukens AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] honey/brood ratio & quantities before extracting?
  • Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 15:24:09 -0400

Hey folks,

I've got a year-old hive that looked strong coming into spring, and I'm pretty sure it swarmed (saw swarm cells, now there are many fewer bees, and more drones than usual).  It does seem queen-right - I didn't see her, but saw new eggs today. 

All our hives are in medium hive bodies.  Before they swarmed I put a 4th medium on (to no avail, alas!).  The 4th medium hasn't been touched, still - no comb built up or anything.

The 3rd medium is full of honey, most of it capped - no brood cells at all.  The bottom two mediums have a 5 frames of brood between them (all new laying, two of them really spotty pattern).  The rest of the frames in the bottom two mediums are honey and a little bit of pollen.

My questions include:
- Do I need to do anything for these girls?  Extra frame of brood from a healthy hive?  Keep the 4th medium on in case they suddenly realize they can use it, and have enough bees to do so?
- Would y'all leave the honey so they have plenty of food while building back up their numbers, or does that sound like more than they need?  My intent in keeping hives is to help bees, and honey harvest would be cool if it happened, but is more like a side benefit for me.

Thanks everybody!

Margaret



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page