Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - [ocba] Worried (Needlessly?)

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Thomas Grizzle" <griz AT mindspring.com>
  • To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Worried (Needlessly?)
  • Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:11:48 -0400

Hi All,

 

I need some wisdom from the group.  Today for the first time when I went into my hive to give them a quart of sugar water early in the morning (at about 7:00 AM), I did not like what I found.  It is usually much later in the day.  Some background….

 

I purchased bees from Busy Bee and started one hive from scratch (all foundation comb) in April of this year.  I started with one deep and used a screened top feeder super, feeding about 10-15 pounds of sugar initially.  About a month into it, I realized that the screen allowed small hive beetle to have unlimited access to the sugar water without the bees being able chase them away and I had a couple dozen running around.  So I abandoned this feeder and started using a front feeder at the entrance with an inverted quart jar.  After doing this a month or so I received a book (Beekeeper’s Handbook) which said it is not a good idea to feed this way due to robbing, so I changed again about a month ago.  At this point I have a deep with the brood, a second deep on top of that they are supposed to be drawing out the comb in (but it is slow going), and then an inner cover.  Then I put the quart feeder over the opening in the inner cover, place a third deep box around that (w/o frames), a second inner cover over top of this empty deep containing the feeder, and then the outer cover.  I have been giving 1-2 quarts a week of about 1:1 (water:sugar).

 

Today, when I opened the first inner cover, probably 25-30 small hive beetles ran for cover (“hands of doom” came down for about 10 of the little bastards).  This prompted me to look deeper into the hive.  The second deep was very light, no honey or fully drawn comb yet, but lots of efforts in this regard with partially drawn comb, and bees all over the 10 frames.  In the lowest deep, I did a random sampling of frames (looked at 4 across the 10) and could not find much honey or pollen.  There were capped brood and a good population of bees (it was early AM before they forage), hard to say how many but way more than I’d purchased originally by several fold.  I looked and could not see eggs, but I have never been able to see them yet.  Did not look for the queen.

 

So what would Scooby doo?  Do I feed like heck and since I have a good population, that should keep the SHB in check?  I plan to give them a quart every day for the next couple of weeks.  Should I up the concentration to a 1:2 (water:sugar), just to give them the added calories?  Should I think about other nutritionals?  Should I attack the SHB issue?

 

I understand the responses to these questions may conflict, i.e., one person may think I should do x, y and z and another may think w, x and y, but that is ok, I’d like to hear the full breadth of opinions, so please don’t be inhibited.

 

Much appreciated.  I’ll email again in a month or so with the outcome. 

 

Tom Grizzle




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page