60's today I'm going in to check store's and feed...need advise!!

[hollybees]

Hi,
We have a couple of warm days here in MI. I plan to check on their food store's.
I have some ---abee patties I bought this fall and did not use, I plan to feed it to them.
Do they break the cluster in 60deg weather or not. I know I'm not supposed to disturb the cluster.
I also know I should not pull frames at this point.

Can you pull supers?
Will the cluster stay in one super or span 2 of them, another words can you safely pull a super w/o breaking the cluster in half?

I've never done this before and I really don't know what to expect, but I'll give it my best shot.

Any advise

Thanks,
Paul

[hollybees]

Actually I just called and talked to a guy at Dadant.
he told me not to pull off any supers and to only feed them some dry sugar on the inner cover.

He also said not to feed them the ----abee till mid march because I don't want to stimulate the queen to lay yet.

Glad I called.......

Would still welcome do's and don't advise.....for sure.

Thanks,
Paul

[NWIN Beekeeper]

Feeding pollen would not be terrible, its approaching brood rearing time, and if you were pollinating that might be desirable. But if you are backyarding for a private crop, you probably wound't want to.

It would have been a big mistake to start syrup feeding this soon.  It would have contributed a lot of moisture to the hive. The temperature swing could have also caused suction issues that could have leaked top feed buckets or jars.   These are both reasons that dry sugar is most ideal in these situations.

[JP]

One more thing to add is if you have shb in your area feeding the patty would stimulate them to lay eggs and get a strong hold on your hives, bad idea.


...JP