Is it to late to super in Michigan and what is this flower?

harvey · August 13, 2010, 12:51:05 PM

Sorry no picture of the flower. It is yellow and looks like a dandelion but it is on stems that are almost four feet tall with maybe twenty flowers to a stem? The bees are devouring it!! First time I have seen this much activity on all my hives at once and the golden rod isn't even out yet! I figure I have a week or so of these flowers, then a couple weeks of goldenrod, then my buckwheat should be blooming. After that it will be over for the year. On four of my hives I have supers right now. Foundationless so they have to draw them out to use them. I am going to check monday to see if my other three hives may be ready for supers. If they are is it to late in the year to do this? Would it be to late to add a second super if any of the hives have the first one full? I sure don't want to short them in the deeps but right now seems like the flow is on pretty hard!

gardeningfireman · August 13, 2010, 01:08:23 PM

By all means, once the supers are 3/4 full, add another! Goldenrod is just starting to bloom now here, and today I noticed a lot more bees flying in and out on foraging missions. Buckwheat blooms about 4 weeks after sprouting, so you should get plenty of bloom time in. I just planted another bed of it Wed. I have 2 beds of it in bloom right now. As long as the bees are bringing in nectar it is not too late to super. Just make sure they have enough honey in the brood boxes come the end of October. I put a couple frames of honey in the freezer in case they run short in March or April. Good luck, and happy harvesting! :-D
Alan

Scadsobees · August 13, 2010, 01:50:09 PM

It never hurts to add room, you can always remove it later if they don't use it. Some people report comb-building on goldenrod, but I haven't experienced that.

I'm not sure what the yellow flowers are, but I do see a few of them around too. If they're hitting them hard it could also mean that there isn't much else out there ....

Rick

harvey · August 13, 2010, 10:43:09 PM

Thanks Rick, Alan, I don't want to steal more than I should but I didn't get any honey at all in the spring and am really hoping this fall flow produces some. Only downfall I see with foundationless is if they dont build it they cant fill it! but I am trying to keep them as natural as I can. Better than half of my bees are michigan survivors that I caught swarms off of. Also A friend of mine found another bee tree! To late as it split in storm and the bees swarmed last week before I could figure a way to hive them. I am sure they are in the same area of the woods and the tree they came out of the comb was very thick and black so I figure they have survived in that woods near a swamp for several years. I will be putting swarm traps out in that woods come spring. Alan stay safe, last couple of fires we had fire fighters down due to the heat! Harv

lisascenic · August 14, 2010, 02:43:35 AM

Maybe hawkweed?

TheMasonicHive · August 14, 2010, 10:10:37 AM

Harvey,

Its my understanding that we have goldenrod out right now, and its also my understanding that goldenrod honey (though legitimate food source for the bees) isn't very appealing to the palette.

I've seen ZERO comb build up over the last couple of weeks. If your supers are full or close to being as such, then you might want to add the super, and like someone else said, if they don't do anything with it, take it off.

If worst came to worse they'd draw a little bit of comb that they won't have to next year when you reintroduce the box.

harvey · August 14, 2010, 12:01:01 PM

The Masonic Hive! Dude, Ya gotta at least try the honey from Goldenrod! It is a little darker than some others but I think it is very good! Most of the honey I took last year was from golden rod and I loved it. Others I gave it to also said it was very good! I have been waiting all season for the goldenrod to come out just for the honey!