G'day Everybody,
I recently purchased some awesome quality second hand frames with drawn comb - they still have some honey residue in them.
I've got a hive with, at the moment, a single brood box... the guy i bought it from suggested i put another box on this weekend so i'm going to be installing two medium supers full of stickies which should give them a really good head start before winter (they wont have to draw out any comb etc). With the hive bodies and frames i purchased though i also got some full depth supers and with that came four frames of stickies. I want the bees to clean these stickies out but i don't want them to lay any new stores in them as i dont want to put the full depth box on until spring. My plan was to put the two mediums on top of the brood box and the full depth (with the four frames in it) on top of that... any suggestions how i can get them to clean them out but not lay new stores? or will they just clan it out automatically and then start laying stores from the brood box up?
Thanks for your assistance
Just put a queen excluder on first and then the box with frames you need cleaned. However, if nectar is flowin, they may just keep filling them up.
Another alternative would be setting them out somewhere (not close to any hives) and let them find/clean them up.
I agree with putting them out and let your bees clean up the frames. Is you honey season down under over yet and do you have enough honey for winter?
Thanks for your thoughts - i might just do that - put them out and let them find them. I have a base and lid that i will put on too as the weather has turned a little and i don't want it all to get wet with the rain. I want to put the two medium on as additional brood chambers so i'll not put an excluder under them.
My hive is still bringing in a nice amount of nectar - the pollen has died down a little but some eucalypts in the area have started flowering so hopefully over the next few weeks that will change. I'll be doing an inspection this weekend to see what their honey stores are like... if need be i will put a feeder on just to be on the safe side. I know when i inspected two weeks ago that the brood was booming and there were some nicely capped honey stores along with some pollen stores. Is there a guide as to how many frames of honey bees would need to survive winter? I have full depth frames in my brood chamber at the moment
On how much honey you need for you bees to survive the winter, it depends on what kind of winter you have. Up here, I like to have 2 deep boxes heavy with food to get them through the winter.
Quote from: OzBuzz on April 13, 2010, 07:11:33 PM
G'day Everybody,
I recently purchased some awesome quality second hand frames with drawn comb - they still have some honey residue in them.
I've got a hive with, at the moment, a single brood box... the guy i bought it from suggested i put another box on this weekend so i'm going to be installing two medium supers full of stickies which should give them a really good head start before winter (they wont have to draw out any comb etc). With the hive bodies and frames i purchased though i also got some full depth supers and with that came four frames of stickies. I want the bees to clean these stickies out but i don't want them to lay any new stores in them as i dont want to put the full depth box on until spring. My plan was to put the two mediums on top of the brood box and the full depth (with the four frames in it) on top of that... any suggestions how i can get them to clean them out but not lay new stores? or will they just clan it out automatically and then start laying stores from the brood box up?
Thanks for your assistance
Is you Location: Hopelessly Lost ??? Are you in the USA :? Winter time in April :?
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Hey Jim, would help if i updated that wouldn't it!
I'm in Melbourne, Australia