Advice PLEASE

asprince · June 12, 2011, 03:48:20 PM

I have 40 hives that are on the verge of starvation. What is the fastest way to feed that many hives? Earlier this spring they were on canola and they were packed with honey. It has been so dry here with little or no spring honey flow. They are now on squash for pollination but they are not getting enough nectar. Cotton is months away. If it is not irrigated here, it is dead.

I have never had to feed like this before. Any advice would be appreciated.

Steve

schawee · June 12, 2011, 04:04:57 PM

had the same problem too.i

had the same problem .what i did was take honey frames from the hives that had extra and gave it to the hives that didn't have any.and i had to feed them sugar water.if you don't have extra honey frames i would feed them 1:1 sugar water.if you don't have feeders you can use gal.zip lock bags and lay them on top of the frames and make a slit on top of the bag and place a empty med. box on top .i have 70 hives and 2/3 of them needed feeding because of the drought. ...schawee

hardwood · June 12, 2011, 04:10:51 PM

Open feed well away from the hives is the quickest way.

Scott

asprince · June 12, 2011, 04:14:05 PM

Quote from: hardwood on June 12, 2011, 04:10:51 PM
Open feed well away from the hives is the quickest way.

How far away?

Steve

asprince · June 12, 2011, 04:19:09 PM

Quote from: schawee on June 12, 2011, 04:04:57 PM
had the same problem too. i had the same problem .what i did was take honey frames from the hives that had extra and gave it to the hives that didn't have any.and i had to feed them sugar water.if you don't have extra honey frames i would feed them 1:1 sugar water.if you don't have feeders you can use gal.zip lock bags and lay them on top of the frames and make a slit on top of the bag and place a empty med. box on top .i have 70 hives and 2/3 of them needed feeding because of the drought. ...schawee

I already did the frame swap thing. Not enough to go around.

Steve

thegolfpsycho · June 12, 2011, 04:31:08 PM

Clean 55 gallon drum of syrup with the top on, openings cut around the top under the rim, straw or floating screen. Put it a short distance from the hives and stand back. Have more ready cause they can move it pretty fast if they have good populations.

FRAMEshift · June 12, 2011, 04:55:08 PM

Quote from: schawee on June 12, 2011, 04:04:57 PM
.i have 70 hives and 2/3 of them needed feeding because of the drought. ...schawee

Hey schawee, you are right on the river aren't you? How can you have drought problems? I thought all the riverside plants would give you a constant bloom.

schawee · June 12, 2011, 09:33:15 PM

frameshift, the river has nothing to do with the nector flow here.anything that would have been good for the bees is 18ft.underwater.we have tons of nector producing plants here but when you don't get rain in almost 3 months the nector isn't there.thanks for the tupelo bloom and tallow in the swamp, i probably would be feeding now.we are getting a good flow now with what i call alligator grass.its a water plant that grows in in the swamps.the bees love this.i hope to get a good harvest out of this. schawee

AllenF · June 12, 2011, 09:52:28 PM

Noticed some of the sourwoods starting to bloom this week camping. Maybe look for the hills for some sourwood. Just everything is so dry with no rain this spring.

Kathyp · June 12, 2011, 11:23:45 PM

second open feed unless you want to spend all day, every day, putting syrup on. if that's not an option, i can't see any reason you couldn't do as we do in winter and dump 5 lbs of dry on each hive. as long as there is a good water supply...and you might want to dampen it anyway, it would keep them from starving. that dry and you might also need a pollen sub to keep them growing?

kingbee · June 13, 2011, 12:19:15 AM

My two cents worth would bee to buy, beg, borrow, or steal one (or more) of those 3 to 5 gallon zinc or plastic gravity flow chicken waters. Check out this link. http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/powa.html

Then use it (them) to mass or open feed. Hopefully not closer to the hives than a couple of a hundred yards to cut down on fighting. Or you could establish a larger number of smaller feeders (1-2 quarts) to accomplish the same thing by spreading the wealth around in every direction.

Don't forget to add enough clean gravels, marbles or clean foam rubber sponges or straw to the drinker bowls to keep bee drowning down.

Kathyp · June 13, 2011, 12:38:05 AM

if you use the chicken waterers be sure to screen the hole!! if you don't, they crawl up inside and you end up with a container of dead bees. hot glue gun and window screen, or if you have time, gorilla glue works well also.

kingbee · June 13, 2011, 12:56:26 AM

no problem with dead bees if you keep the reservoir filled, the drinking bowl full of gravels, or store the waterer when its job is done. Besides the larger galvinised fountians have a spring loaded valve that I don't think a bee can enter.

Michael Bush · June 13, 2011, 04:48:17 AM

Slightly damp sugar will stave off starvation pretty well.

Kathyp · June 13, 2011, 11:00:32 AM

Quoteno problem with dead bees if you keep the reservoir filled,

the second it gets empty and you are not there to catch it, it will be filled with bees and they will die in there. simple solution to screen it.

cowboygourmet · June 13, 2011, 11:13:09 AM

I buy the syrup from Dadant in 55 gallon drums and use a small pump to fill quart jars.