What are they foraging..

[SteveSC]

With the weather as warm as it's been here in the South and Southeast the bees are out most of the day light hours foraging.  Yesterday for example it was 72 degs. here and by the way the bees were flying you'd thought it was mid May.  These bees are using alot energy flying which means they have to eat alot. 

What are the bees foraging after this time of yr..?

There was another post ( forgot the title ) and this was brought up by TwT.  If these bees are being fooled to forage by the warm weather and not returning with pollen or nectur - they seem to be heading toward disaster as far as running out of stores for the rest of the winter. 

If this warm weather continues through the rest of the winter should we be feeding our bees 2:1 syrup to get them through till the spring flow kicks in..? 

Once we start feeding should we continue right through the early spring or can we feed them hard  - let them build stores back up and then ease off the feeding...?

I'm alittle confused about the weather\feeding methods and concerned about my bees starving if I don't do the right thing at the right time...  I'm sure there's alot of us out there that are as confused myself...maybe not - I might be the only dumb one... :-D

[Kirk-o]

I don't think one day or two will make a differnce.If they have stores they will be ok.As to what they are forageing for I don't know I guess you will have to look around.Bees are pretty smart
kirko

[Finsky]

It is better to try how heavy hives are. If hive is light, it is better to look into hive what is situation. Like Kirk-o says, few days means nothing.

After our long winter bees fly one month and I am not worried about food. I check their stores and feed them if it is needed. Warm is good thing to bees.
And if someone says from another state what ever, it means nothing in you hives. Every hive is individual.

[lively Bee's]

Steve.

Its been a very mild winter here in Tennessee, I have hives that are bring in pollen from some were I have walked the flids and woods and I can not find what they are collecting. 

[super dave]

i had about ten bees in my wood shop on friday when it was about63 out -- it looked like they were colleting the saw dust -- is that true
hmmmmmm

[TwT]

ok, my hives are raising brood like crazy now, bringing in pollen and maybe some nectar but not sure about the nectar, they are eating through their stores fast, I have been feeding mine 2-1 syrup the last 3 weeks trying to add to their stores.. reason I am doing this is because were I live the worst part of winter is from the end of January , through february and the beginning of march, I dont think winter has showed it head yet and with the bee's burning up their stores I just want to make sure if we do have a long spell of cold weather my bee's want starve.... I had to feed this past fall (2-1) because I pulled almost all their honey in July and we had a very poor fall flow.... everyone just needs to check their hive or see how heavy they are just in case we do get a late cold winter.... that's all I was talking about in the other post.>>>>>>>>> just my 2 pennies worth!!!!

[SteveSC]

Not knowing any better and taking some bad advise I also took most of the honey, in June.  Thinking the bees could build stores back up - which didn't happen -  I have some hives getting lighter.  Last yr. was my first full yr. with the bees - lesson learned - won't repeat that mistake in 07'.

I still don't know what there after when foraging....whatever it is, I hope they get alot of it.

I'll start feeding 2:1 and continue straight through......

[tom]

Hello

   I see that i am not the only one that is going thru the same thing i have been trying to hold off feeding mine but then i had to it has been warm here in southern virginia and my girls are bring in pollen in all colors. I took a peek thru the inner cover hold and they still have alot of stores but i do know they are rearing brood so i started feeding and then they just stop taking it and forging on thier own. Now it is raining here and they are calling for warm days and cold nites they say it is going to be like it is winter now but i think my girls are going to be ok i also have a back up plan like i learned from finsky i filled drawn out combs with syrup so if any of them need a frame to help out they got it.

Tom

[TwT]

I have been feeding 2-1 syrup for the last 3 weeks, just in case but my hives are booming with bee's and dont want them to be short this spring, tell you one thing though the hives will be full of bee's time spring hits in a few months and I will split and then add supers to the ones I dont split....... I should be grafting now but will hold off for a while
...

[Brian D. Bray]

If the stores are getting light and the bees are foraging but only seem to be bringing back pollen, especially if the bees have gone into brood rearing, it is best to feed a little over a longer period in order to mimic a light but sustained honey flow.  Feeding heavy to rebuild stores might make your hive honey bound just whn you need them to begin major brood rearing.  Light sustained feeding will keep the store levels even and still allow for brood production.

[Kirk-o]

Thats a smart Idea Brian
kirko

[Scott Derrick]

I don't live too far from TwT and my bees are doing the same thing. I have also been feeding 2-1 syrup although I do have plenty of honey in the supers. I just wanted to make sure they had what they needed since it has been so upredictable. I checked a hive this weekend that was a county away and one that I have not been feeding. They were bringing in loads of pollens and when I cracked open the hive the top super had three frames of uncapped honey and the rest capped. Three week prior it was all capped. I am almost sure they had brought it in.

One of the dangers I understand from senior beekeepers is that when the queen starts laying heavily this early you can have a lot of frozen brood when the bees move too the top super. My mentor says that he had at least two hand fulls of dead brood pulled from the cells and laying in front of his hive due to them freezing. One cold night last week. 

Not good.

Scott