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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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Re: [ocba] do I need feeders on durning nectar flow?
- 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:
15bad6b28bc-63b0-15732 AT webstg-m05.mail.aol.com"> |
-
[ocba] do I need feeders on durning nectar flow?,
Randy Chellis, 04/26/2017
- Re: [ocba] do I need feeders on durning nectar flow?, Randall Austin, 04/27/2017
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