Honey storage

rogerdarbonne · August 21, 2016, 11:20:21 PM

I am new to bee keeping. I started this year with 2 hives. They both started strong. We have 2 honey flows here in TN. A spring and a fall. Both hives were storing plenty of honey. Both had 5 out of 10 frames each. I checked 2 weeks later and all but 1 frame in each hive jade honey. My setup on each hive is 2 10 frame deeps for brood and 2 10 frame honey supers. I check last week and they seem to be filling the honey supers back up. Can anyone let me know what may have happened. I have both marked queens and plenty of brood

tjc1 · August 21, 2016, 11:24:56 PM

I'm not quite clear on what you are saying happened? Do you mean that they seem to have lost honey between the spring and now? If it has been as dry there as it has been here, and you have had a mid-summer dearth, they can use a good bit of the springtime honey up and then hopefully refill in the fall. If the fall flow is bad you may well need to feed them up before winter, or even before the fall. Heft the hive from the back - if they are light (it should be work to pick up an end), then they could be in trouble.

cao · August 22, 2016, 01:24:01 AM

This year with the warm and early spring my hives started out great. Everything was blooming three weeks early. The only downside is the summer dearth started earlier so it has been a couple of weeks longer. Several of my full size hives haven't put on any honey in the last three weeks. Some of my splits are just barely making even with feeding. Hopefully, with all the rain we have had lately, the fall flow will be good. I think it is just about to start.

cao · August 22, 2016, 01:43:20 AM

p.s. Welcome rogerdarbonne.

rogerdarbonne · August 22, 2016, 09:41:50 AM

Thanks for the input. It has been hot here and we had an early start. We started 3 weeks early also. I will check them today. I started feeding them for about 2 weeks now. Hope that gets them going.

bwallace23350 · August 22, 2016, 09:45:01 AM

Yeah this is a good question at least for a new beek. My fall flow looks to be going strong as my bees have found some wild flower they are crazy over even before the golden rod started to bloom. I might take enough honey for personal consumption this year or maybe not.

rogerdarbonne · August 22, 2016, 11:24:37 PM

I did not get to check them today. I will check them tomorrow and try and get some pics to post.
I may try and take a little honey for the wife this fall if they keep going strong.

Acebird · August 23, 2016, 09:20:45 AM

I am trying to envision what these colonies look like. The physical size of the cavity doesn't tell the story (2 deeps, 2 mediums). What was in them is what counts. In the spring you had 5 out of 10 frames of honey, I assume but you had 20 or more frames that could have had honey.

GSF · August 23, 2016, 10:29:11 AM

Welcome Roger! Ask as many questions as you'd like. Please put your location in your profile so we can keep an idea where you're at. This will help our answers to be more accurate.

rogerdarbonne · August 23, 2016, 10:19:16 PM

I have 10 frame boxes. I had 5 frames in each hive that were full with one frame of brood in each honey super. I added the second honey super with the thought they would fill them up at the rate they were going. I have a few that are moving in and out of the second super. But not much
activity in them. I am not using any queen exclude on either hive.

Acebird · August 23, 2016, 10:59:57 PM

Does that mean there is nothing in the bottom box? And who knows what is in the second deep? If you do not use a QE and I say there is no need then you must let the hive develop a honey dome so there will not be any brood in your supers unless you don't care. Here is the problem, if you don't know what your hive looks like then we will never know what your hive looks like.

rogerdarbonne · August 24, 2016, 05:17:48 PM

Ok here goes. I checked both hives. Hive #1 I have every little honey stores. I have plenty brood in the 2 brood chambers along with pollen and nectar. Hive #2 I have 2 frames of honey in the honey super. I have plenty brood pollen and nectar in the 2 brood chambers on it

Acebird · August 24, 2016, 09:42:53 PM

I don't know TN very well but the hives don't appear to be in trouble. What happens in my area is that some honey gets consumed in August raising brood for winter bees. The flow doesn't go to a dearth but the hive doesn't gain weight. Then God willing the goldenrod and aster breaks loose and the hives tank up like an oil barge. That is what we all wish for.

rogerdarbonne · August 24, 2016, 09:48:44 PM

Thanks for the info. I hope that is what happens. I stared giving the syrup. Hopefully that will help them.

Acebird · August 25, 2016, 08:10:26 AM

You said they had honey and pollen so giving them syrup might just shut down brood rearing by loading up the brood nest. What is your hope that they will fill the supers with syrup? Then what are you going to do with that? You don't want sugar in your honey do you?

rogerdarbonne · August 25, 2016, 10:46:32 AM

I want to make sure they have what they need for the winter

rogerdarbonne · August 26, 2016, 04:38:34 PM

OK, Had a chance to sit and watch both hive really good around 8:00 AM this morning. noticed bees loaded with pollen coming in both hives.
Very little flight activity around the hives. I checked them again around 11:00 AM and noticed quite a bit of flight activity around both hives. I
did not see much pollen coming in. I decide to take off both entrance feeders install entrance reducer to 1 bee entrance, close off top entrance
and put a wet sheet on both hives. Really heavy flight activity after placing the sheets. Bees all over the hives. I noticed allot of fighting going
on. At 2:00 PM I pulled the sheets and re wet them. Checked the ground in front of the hives and found lots of dead bees. I placed the sheets back on the hives and will check again in the morning.

tjc1 · August 27, 2016, 04:41:57 PM

The only feeding that I have ever done is from a gravity bucket feeder over the inner cover, which was closed up by an empty deep placed on top, with the telescoping lid over that. I put a piece of window screen with the edges bent over the deep so that it is sealed from any bees getting in, and so that I can tip up the telescoping cover on one end for ventilation. As long as I use syrup (not honey) and don't put any HBH in it, it seems to avoid other bees knowing that I am feeding, so eliminates robbing.

rogerdarbonne · October 09, 2016, 12:16:28 AM

I have let the girls do their work and the goldenrod hit. My supers are just about full and capped the second deep has little broad and lots of honey around the sides. Looks like they will be ok.

GSF · October 10, 2016, 10:02:04 PM

Congrads!