Starved bees next to food :(

[SiWolKe]

LiL,
the first pict shows a starving hive.
The brood hatched almost completely, the queen ( it?s one of my new buckfasts) starts to lay the cleaned cells in the middle but there is no honey above.
If I see more than three combs like that and no side stores I feed, if it?s summer. In spring it?s ok here, flow will come and they do not store much, but in summer it?s a bad sign.

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Van,
that?s how my combs look throughout the year until late summer. Elgon bees.

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[CoolBees]

Very nice pictures Sibylle. A lot goes into getting pictures that good ... years.

[Acebird]

Hmm, why so much brood with no stores, Drones too?

[SiWolKe]

Hmm, why so much brood with no stores, Drones too?

What do you mean?

The first pict was the package bees and they had no urge to breed drones. They had some later in year. I got them after swarm season. They bred workers as long as they had food.
The package was 1.5kg of bees. Not much so late in year.
I put in 2 deep frames with stores to start them up. The pict is the moment they stopped breeding almost completely when the flow ended and the stores were eaten. The eggs you see probably would have been eaten and a  broodbrake started , which next time I will not prevent, because a summer broodbrake may hold the mites at bay. I thought numbers not strong enough but I lack the experience evaluating this sometimes.
They were my first package bees and I don?t know about pure buckfast behaviours yet.

In spring to summer my bees breed much and have drones. Sometimes 1/3 of the hive are drones or more.
They constantly store honey but not so much prepare domes, they store it at the sides and in the supers.
This changes in late summer. When there is no drought, they store at the top and prepare for winter, means smaller brood areas, much more stores.
Nothing special about that.

[SiWolKe]

If a comb is used in this way, seen below, all goes well. The brood hatches pollen is stored after hatching or used directly, and a new broodnest is organised. But this appearance in June means year there is a constant flow not a main flow.
A main flow fills my supers and the broodframes up to 8-10 are filled with brood.
Plus, it?s a comb of an adapted colony. I use imported stock because no tf stock is available here, but they need some time to adapt, it?s mostly the hybrid daughter who is best.
The southern queens stored badly, the northern ones economize. No southern bees for me anymore.


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[Acebird]

What do you mean?

The bottom photo of post #20 shows nice brood and drones in the lower right corner with pollen and bee bread on the frame.
The photo in the post above shows no pollen or nectar but nice dome of honey.  That would be strange for me.  Don't know what to make of it.

[MikeyN.C.]

She looks pretty 

[SiWolKe]

What do you mean?

The bottom photo of post #20 shows nice brood and drones in the lower right corner with pollen and bee bread on the frame.
The photo in the post above shows no pollen or nectar but nice dome of honey.  That would be strange for me.  Don't know what to make of it.

I had times the bees did not store pollen that was when the brood cells capped and the pupa emerges.
After the bees hatched, pollen was stored or used directly. In a constant pollen flow the pollen was not covered with honey. The storing and pollen cover with honey was mostly done on a special pollen frame next to the broodnest.
I?ve had brood cells completely covering the comb, bar to bar.
All this appearances depend on flow, seasonal moments and bee numbers the bees want to breed. My bees tend to stay on the deep frames while breeding.
If the need more space to store they use the supers when the side frames are filled, but I have watched them move the honey to the supers to be able to have the side frames for breeding space.
What?s left at the sides is the pollen frame.