Good morning, friends. I've been feeding the bees syrup. Yesterday's inspection showed one frame with nothing but a grapefruit-sized white comb of capped honey. Dandelions are now blooming here, so I'd say our flow has just begun. Because they're storing the honey, is it time to stop feeding?
-Liz
General rule of thumb is you stop feeding when they stop taking it or when you put honey supers on. Hope this helps.
I would stop when you have things blooming and capped comb. They often don't stop taking it and backfill the brood nest and swarm.
Ditto what MB said. Last year I went with the "they will stop taking it when there is a good natural nectar flow on" and I had a syrup filled brood nest. I just installed a package an hour ago (drawn comb) and they got 2 quarts to get them started. After that, they may be own their own. Plenty of things blooming here where I live.
They're now on their own. Thanks very much for the help.
-Liz
I have a bunch of capped honey frames and drawn comb to use for my packages....should I still feed them to stimulate brood rearing, or will they draw from the honey reserves that I give them?
Guess that's why beekeeping is different in all places mine have always stopped taking sugar when a good enough flow starts. All in where you live i suppose.
As most of us know the bees like to work their way up. What i do is let them draw out the bottom box shy of 2 frames then i install the second box and when this box is almost drawn out i stop feeding the sugar syrup and let the bees finish drawing wax and then they start storing nectar when i install the supers. Like MB said you need to keep an eye on your brood chambers Chris
>As most of us know the bees like to work their way up.
Actually bees like to, and in natural situations always do, work their way DOWN. But they will work their way to where there is room if they can't work down.
If a swarm moves into a tree there is only down to move to. At the end of winter in an established hive in a tree they are at the top and there is only down to move to...
Quote from: hankdog1 on April 11, 2011, 04:21:05 PM
Guess that's why beekeeping is different in all places mine have always stopped taking sugar when a good enough flow starts. All in where you live i suppose.
We had this discussion last month at one of the bee clubs I belong to. Out of the over 100 beeks in the room nobody raised their hand when they were asked about the girls taken the sugar syrup after the bloom started. Must be like you said that there's exceptions to the rule.
I was wondering about this topic. I have one month old packages that are hived. They have started to cap some of the syrup, but they have not drawn out all of the foundation in my 8 frame mediums. So should I stop feeding? They might have 1/2 of one frame capped and thats a generous guess. We are in a pretty rough drought and not much better looking for us in the future. But we are in a mesquite bloom so I dunno.
Jason
If they have several frames of honey and are bringing in pollen and nectar of their own, I stop feeding.
njoylife
Capped sugar water is not honey, it is still syrup. You do not want to contaminate your honey if you plan on harvesting. Just something to keep in mind. But if you are starting a package on new foundation, they will need all the help and there will not be a harvest.
Quote from: AllenF on April 18, 2011, 07:40:49 PM
Capped sugar water is not honey, it is still syrup. You do not want to contaminate your honey if you plan on harvesting. Just something to keep in mind. But if you are starting a package on new foundation, they will need all the help and there will not be a harvest.
I heard they used 80% of the sugar syrup for wax production and as long as you removed the feeder a few weeks after the bloom starts all the SS will be gone long before harvest time. Because the girls move pollen and honey throughout the hive over the summer any SS that was capped will be long gone come September. Was I told something that wasn't true ?
Quote from: Hethen57 on April 11, 2011, 03:23:49 PM
I have a bunch of capped honey frames and drawn comb to use for my packages....should I still feed them to stimulate brood rearing, or will they draw from the honey reserves that I give them?
Honey is the very best food for the bees so if you have frames of honey to give them, yes that is good. You do not need to feed anything other than honey.
I always put aside each winter several frames of capped honey to feed back to my bees if they should run low in the Spring.
When they have no capped honey, they are still living hand to mouth. They still think they need the open nectar (syrup?) to feed the young. When they start capping it, they think they have stores. That's what I use as a cue that they have enough if there is still nectar coming in.