I live in Connecticut and I'm a first year beekeeper. At the advice of my mentor I split my 2 deep hive into two single deep hives. I either lost my queen or there was a swarm, I've had many opinions as to what happened and I had many queen cells in my hive. It was recommended that I split the hive and distribute the frames with queen cells evenly between the hives, which I did. That was a little over a month ago and things are doing well, I have eggs, larva and capped brood in each hive. Now my concern is that they have enough honey in each hive and whether I need to feed to encourage more honey production. Each hive is still a single deep and as far as how many frames of honey there are in each hive, I would say that there are about six or seven frames in each hive that have honey on them, not full frames of honey, but capped honey along the top of about six or seven frames in each hive. I'm guessing that that is nowhere near enough honey to get them through the winter and was wondering if I needed to start feeding now or wait, and what the ratio of feed should be (2:1?)?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Where I am we are in the start of the goldenrod/ Joe pie weed flow. Depending on location you could be fine. I also only feed dry sugar. That cuts some moisture problems in the winter.
It depends on why you are feeding.
I start around the end of August to get Fumagillin into the hives for winter. Some will tell you not to use fumagillin B... I lost two hives about three years ago to Nosema, so now I feed them Fumagillin... I have not lost a hive to Nosema Since then.. Its up to you if you choose to use it or not.
If your feeding for winter reserves, you want to do it soon enough that they can dehydrate and cap it, so no later than the middle of September? Again, depending where you are...
In Fall, you need to feed them FAST so they store and cap it. 2/1 means they dont have to dehydrate as much.. in spring feed thinner 1/1 and feed slow to encourage comb building and brood rearing..
I'm not sure what beeks in your area winter with, ask locals what configuration and weight is needed. Here in my local, it is recommended that they are double deeps and weigh around 80 lbs. You will know better once you have that info plus know when the temps get to frost at night.