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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Randy Chellis <crandytoo AT aol.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] do I need feeders on durning nectar flow?
  • Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2017 09:38:35 -0400

Randy,

Great question -- it is asked a lot this time of year.

Your tiny little bee population is in a race against time. It must get all that comb drawn out before the summer dearth (nectar/syrup is "fuel" for the bees' wax glands and they won't generate wax without it). Note that the bee population has been gradually falling ever since it was installed and won't start rising again until 21 days after the queen began laying (first it must catch up to where it was at the start, then it can actually grow). Then it will be a couple of weeks more before there are any new foragers.

The bees have to raise young, draw wax, process nectar into honey, defend the hive and forage for food. That's a big to-do list for 10,000 bees (and falling). There aren't very many ways the beekeeper can truly "help" the bees except for feeding. Give 'em a break and continue feeding until your feeding goals have been met (a must-read article on this topic is <here>). Sugar is a whole lot cheaper than packages.

So... short answer... you only need to feed the new package colonies that you want to survive.

Randall


On 4/26/2017 11:18 PM, Randy Chellis via ocba wrote:
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I was wondering if maybe I should take my top feeders off of my new packaged bees (installed April 1st) while the nectar flow is on, since both hives have almost stopped taking in any syrup?  This way, they could get more air flow from the vented top cover and have a second entrance, then start feeding again after nectar flow?  I have started these bees out with drawn comb already plus some capped honey and pollen, so they don't have to do any extra drawing of comb.

thanks for any advice,
Randy


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