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  • From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • To: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Question about feeder arrangement
  • Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 17:06:37 -0400

John
Great questions

We are now going into week 10 of 90 degree temps. Most of them in the mid to
upper area. So yes we are - were in a nectar dearth for most of the Piedmont.
These late night storms have been our savor. So yes I'd say robbing or
starts of it have been going on so they are on alert more. You have seems to
have pushed the magic button on this hive with that feeder.

I would never worry about burr comb up that high in a nectar dearth in mid
summer. You'd need 40 gallons to start that. With the reduced work force -
bat at excreting wax and no "extra" food for wax I'd say you have no worries.
I didn't back when I feed that heavy a couple years ago.

Just fill it 2 more times and do an inspection.
I'm actually more concerned about the golden rod blooms I'm seeing in
southern orange!!!! It's a month and a half early!!

That is normally late summer early fall food. SO if it blooms now...what
pollen are our girls gonna have in abundance?? That is the next big question.
This high and consistent heat must have triggered an early bloom, but not my
area of speciality at all. That's a master gardener question!

Global warming is here to stay and its wreaking havoc on our bees food supply
timing.

Marty



Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 30, 2015, at 4:34 PM, John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com> wrote:
>
> 2 weeks ago the bees in one of my hives were unusually defensive. I was
> stung multiple times before I had even removed the telescoping cover. But
> since I had just extracted honey from the adjoining hive, I assumed that
> bees were simply agitated by the smell of honey in the air. Rather than
> punch my luck, I closed up the hive without inspecting.
>
> I returned to the hive one week later to finish the aborted inspection.
> Again the bees were angry, overly defensive, bouncing off of me, stinging
> through my gloves and jeans. But on balance I was better protected so I
> persisted. The bottom brood box had no brood, no honey, no nectar and no
> pollen. The upper brood box had only small amounts of everything. So I
> dropped the upper box to the bottom position and added a honey super with 3
> partly filled frames of capped honey and nectar that I had frozen earlier +
> an in-hive feeder filled with light syrup. See picture below.
> <image1.JPG>
>
>
> Today, I refilled the feeder. Thankfully, the bees were back to their usual
> agreeable selves.
>
> My question for all of you experienced beekeepers - what problems, if any,
> am I creating with the feeder box of honey frames coupled with the tank
> feeder? Everything is sitting above the inner cover. Will the bees try to
> fill the void in the feeder box with free form comb? My hope is that they
> will move the honey out of the feeder box frames into their bellies or into
> comb in the brood boxes. Is that likely? 4 days in, it doesn't look like
> they are headed in that direction.
>
> I appreciate all thoughts, comments, and advice.
>
> -John Rintoul
>
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