Hi,
I have some frames of nectar and partially capped honey a couple of months old that I want to feed back to the bees to have them move down to supers below. (It's important that they are robbed out, because the frames are contaminated with tiny particles from a lid that they chewed into, and the particles are too tiny to strain out of the honey). I would rather not set the frames outside - I have done that and it works well, but I am a little concerned about a robbing frenzy, and extremely concerned about some bees stinging passers by (they are in an urban area).
So I set the box of frames to be robbed out on top of a strong hive, above an inner cover with a half inch gap around the sides (this is common in Australia) and scraped open some of the cells on all frames to get the girls interested. A week later, I've open them for a look and the bees have not robbed it out and moved it downstairs as I had hoped, rather they seem to have just moved into it as an extra super.
Anone have any thoughts about how I can get them to rob out this super? What would you try next?
Thanks,
John.
You will likely to have to wait for a dearth. They don't like to move honey when there is nectar to be had.
You could extract it then feed it back to the bees as you would sugar water.
Thank you gents, that makes perfect sense, will give it a go.
Regards,
John.