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  • From: Michael Morrissey <mmorrissey AT fastmail.fm>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>, Orange Co Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] help with feeding
  • Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:48:38 -0400

Thanks Randy. I think this where the experience of seeing different hives survive or fail over many winters is needed. It's not in a book or video.
 
The bees in the weak hive seem healthy and still finding lots of  pollen. They're certainly trying hard, it just seems like there might not be enough. So I guess the follow-up question is how many bees does it take to make a good cluster, (and of course how cold will the 2016 winter be?).  If 1/2 cup of bees is 300, how many cups to the cluster? Just kidding.
 
On the flip side, what can go wrong in combining them?
 
 
Thanks again
--
Michael Morrissey
 
On Sun, Oct 11, 2015, at 08:10 PM, Randall Austin wrote:
Michael,
 
Re: "The question is when--how late can we delay the decision?": That's a great question, and one that I don't have a textbook answer to. I think you can do a newspaper combine just about any time of year, although it seems logical to do it when the bees aren't in winter cluster (so when the temps are above, say, the mid 40's). But when SHOULD you? If you have a dwindling hive that isn't going to make it on its own, then do the combine as soon as you can so the receiving hive can get some benefit from the donor hive in the form of extra bees and brood. So then the next question is, how do we correctly assess whether a hive can make it on its own? We get sentimental about our bees and typically carry the losers along far longer than is sensible. Maybe we should ask ourselves, "would I buy this hive at this time of year, the way it is?" or "is this a hive that I am proud of?" I fully realize this tough love is easier for somebody who has a dozen hives than for somebody who only has 2. However it is better to get something out of a loser than to have it die off completely and get nothing.
 
That's just my opinion... and not necessarily something I faithfully practice!
 
Randall
 
On 10/11/2015 4:49 PM, Michael Morrissey wrote:
1444596588.328376.407302433.6BD89E24 AT webmail.messagingengine.com">
Randall,
'Great timing. I have a similar situation as we received two nucs in August. Each 5 frame nuc has a medium super on it. One is very strong and full of comb. The other nuc is weak and concerns me, as there are fewer bees and several of the lower frames are still completely empty. I donated one frame of brood from the strong hive but it didn't do much. Both hives have been getting plenty of sugar syrup since day 1 (5:3 ratio). In fact the strong hive is consuming about a quart a day, the other one much less. 
 
Combining seems a safe bet, and I could do this by moving each nuc into a 10 frame medium and following the newspaper technique. The question is when--how late can we delay the decision?
 
Thanks again
--
Michael
 
On Sun, Oct 11, 2015, at 03:00 PM, Randall Austin wrote:
Joan,
 
The article <here> answers a lot of questions about feeding.
 
In my opinion, it is too late in the year to try to significantly boost a colony's population by feeding protein (pollen or pollen substitute). All that extra brood will freeze to death because there aren't enough nurse bees to cover them.
 
It is not a bad thing to not have much brood right now, as long as you have a sufficient number of bees to form an adequate winter cluster. A well-behaved queen will be slowing down egg-laying significantly as we approach winter.
 
How many bees are in the weak hive -- how many frames are covered with bees? You may have plenty enough. You shouldn't have nearly as many as a strong spring hive. But if you think the colony is a lost cause, combining this hive with the other one is a good plan, as described in the article <here>. Or if the other hive is really strong and the weak one isn't too weak, you could swap a frame of capped brood and/or shake a few frames of bees from the strong one to the weak one. There's no point in throwing good resources after bad, but if just a bit of a boost would make all the difference between success and failure then this would be a good approach.
 
Randall
 
On 10/11/2015 2:27 PM, Joan Kalnitsky wrote:
81781101.11432669.1444588052517.JavaMail.root AT embarqmail.com" type="cite">
We are first year bee keepers with 2 hives.  One is doing great and has from the beginning.  The other went queenless for a wile back in August.  Just as we were giving up hope we saw we had a new queen and things looked good.  Two weeks later we peeked in and things were progressing well.  We have not been able to get into our hives for some time due to travel, family and weather and peeked in today.  The hive that has had the issues once again is looking very week.  There are lots of stores, very little brood, but we did see the queen.
  We are wondering if we should feed and if so should we feed syrup water or protein?
  If we start feeding now will we have to do so through the winter.  At last weeks meeting we heard all about the candy board, is this an opportunity to use it?
  Thanks in advance for your help.
  Joan and Korinn
 
 
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