Second year Russians still no honey???

ncbeekeeper · August 14, 2008, 08:44:43 PM

Hi all,

I have a second year hive of Russians in my backyard and do not have any honey in the one super I added in spring. The super is over halfway drawn out so there must have been some what of a run. The two brood boxes have a few frames each that are honey and some around the edges of the other frames with brood. So I am wondering even though I live in a nice neighborhood maybe it is not a great neighborhood for bees. Any thoughts??

Thanks,

Scott..

Moonshae · August 14, 2008, 09:21:42 PM

Sounds like you either didn't get much of a flow, added the super too late, or had one or more swarms.

HAB · August 14, 2008, 11:23:35 PM

Swarms.
That is why we moved away from Russians. They would swarm at the drop of a hat. We had to watch them closely for swarm cells.

1of6 · August 15, 2008, 12:01:17 AM

Mine are going great, but I just removed a drone comb from mine and noticed an uncapped swarm cell on it. The queen as still home, as I had to coax her off of that frame. The cell was occupied too. :(

mlewis48 · August 15, 2008, 01:44:50 AM

I started 5 Russian packages, in April. 2 are working on their 3 rd supers, 2 swarmed, and 1 did not like the color of the hive that it was in and left, CCD, who knows? I have to say that they are a good bread of bees but you have to stay 2 steps ahead of them, all of the time. Italians, Buckfast, and Carnies are a little easier to keep up with. Good Luck!
Marc

ncbeekeeper · August 15, 2008, 07:15:10 AM

No swarms that I know of and the hive is very strong and everything in the hive looks fine so I was thinking maybe I am in a bab area. If that is possible.

eri · August 15, 2008, 09:45:12 AM

We are in the third summer of drought and abnormally high temperatures in NC, although this summer has offered some relief. Did they start from a package? Did you feed them?

ncbeekeeper · August 15, 2008, 12:41:03 PM

Not started from a package, it was four or five frames of bees brood and a queen. Yes they were fed for a few weeks the first year and agian this year before spring just to get there numbers up for the coming flow.

Brian D. Bray · August 15, 2008, 10:48:53 PM

Quote from: ncbeekeeper on August 15, 2008, 12:41:03 PM
Not started from a package, it was four or five frames of bees brood and a queen. Yes they were fed for a few weeks the first year and agian this year before spring just to get there numbers up for the coming flow.

Proper procedure on feeding. My question is whether or not you're using a queen excluder. With an excluder if the bees aren't allowed to get a good start on the frames of the super before it is added the bees often will not go up to work it at all, if they begin to work it and the flow slacks off they stop going through the excluder and concentrate on the brood area of the hive. The other option is to bait the super with storage frames from the broodbox below it, it not the same size as the super then leave the excluder off. Off is best IMHO.

ncbeekeeper · August 16, 2008, 06:49:56 AM

I did have to remove the excluder to get the girls into the super so they would start working it, once that happened I put the excluder back on. There are 2 to 3 hundred bees in the super but they don't appear to be doing anything besides hanging out which I think is do to nothing coming in from a flow. Unfortunately I use shallow supers and deep brood boxes so I can't bait the super.

Thanks for the help,

Scott..

WhipCityBeeMan · August 16, 2008, 07:50:14 AM

Did other beekeepers experience the same problems with other bees? You may have had a bad flow.

ncbeekeeper · August 16, 2008, 11:24:57 AM

Not sure I don't keep in touch with anyone nearby, I will give it a try.

qa33010 · August 16, 2008, 06:24:30 PM

Take this for what it's worth but I was reading about bees that were/are bred as pollen gatherers vs nectar gatherers. I don't know if this may have any effect on comb building but some beeks have told me there is a difference. I used a queen excluder on one hive this year and added an upper entrance above it to get the supers worked. I reduced the lower entrance to allow drones and orientation flights. Seems to work okay for me so far.

Russians and ferals are both producing, though one hive does seem to have less honey but a lot of pollen. Pulled some honey, but left the rest on until October.

Brian D. Bray · August 20, 2008, 05:28:55 PM

Quote from: ncbeekeeper on August 16, 2008, 06:49:56 AM
I did have to remove the excluder to get the girls into the super so they would start working it, once that happened I put the excluder back on. There are 2 to 3 hundred bees in the super but they don't appear to be doing anything besides hanging out which I think is do to nothing coming in from a flow. Unfortunately I use shallow supers and deep brood boxes so I can't bait the super.

Thanks for the help,

Scott..

Remove the excluder again and spray the frames with a little simple syrup.
Some hives just won't cooperate with an excluder regardless of what you do, those hives should not have an excluder used at all. The frequency of bees that have problems with excluders is so common that many beekeepers (including me) don't use them at all. They are good for keeping a new swarm from absconding (queen includer), in keeping the queen out of comb honey supers, and as a cappings strainer when extracting.
When you find a hive that will work through an excluder that is the hive to use for comb honey production.

ncbeekeeper · August 21, 2008, 01:13:54 PM

Pulled the excluder off today so lets see if they run up and start drawing it out. I know it's kind of late in the year so I have my fingers crossed.

Funny how when I was a teeneager with seven hives in FL they were not turned away by an excluder but now with Russians and they are picky. Hmmm...

Thanks again for the advice,

Scott..

Brian D. Bray · August 23, 2008, 12:07:55 AM

Quote from: ncbeekeeper on August 21, 2008, 01:13:54 PM
Pulled the excluder off today so lets see if they run up and start drawing it out. I know it's kind of late in the year so I have my fingers crossed.

Funny how when I was a teeneager with seven hives in FL they were not turned away by an excluder but now with Russians and they are picky. Hmmm...

Thanks again for the advice,

Scott..

I found Caucasians even finiker than the Russian, I couldn't get them to go throught and excluder to save my life. They were also very burr comb prone...so they're losing popularity was not a real loss, IMHO.