So far so good... pics

Mklangelo · April 24, 2007, 05:43:31 PM

Day two. I checked on my inverted gallon can feeders to see that they didn't leak and give me 9 pounds of candied bees. So far all three are working like a charm. I added entrance feeders today so the bees have plenty of places to feed from. I noticed two things: Not much bee feces around the entrance. I remember seeing a pic here of a hive just splattered with it. There are little crumbs on the entrance, different from the few splatters of feces I can see.

I also noticed about a dozen dead bees were removed from the hive since installation (about 21 hours ago) I'm thinking these bees just ended their life cycle?

buzzbee · April 24, 2007, 07:41:14 PM

When bees are emptied into packages you have bees of all ages!
Some young,some old and some in between. In a busy hive you can have almost as many dying each day as being born.Old bees often never return to the hive,just fall to the ground and die when there time is up.

Casimir · April 24, 2007, 10:55:57 PM

Why did you paint your hive white and yellow?

thegolfpsycho · April 24, 2007, 11:19:07 PM

You have 3 feeders on 1 hive? A bit of overkill, and if they start storing the syrup instead of using it to produce wax, pull the feeders off and let them work for a living. Feed them up in the fall if they need it.

Brian D. Bray · April 25, 2007, 02:07:47 AM

Probably for the same reason I painted mine yellow boxes with green tops and bottoms. They blend right in to the daffodils. School bus yellow and John Deere green. I call them my honey tractors.

JP · April 25, 2007, 07:53:49 AM

Mk, you will often have some bees in a package that die from stress, etc... I agree with golfpsycho, way too many feeders. I like to mix colors also Brian.

Mklangelo · April 25, 2007, 09:13:44 PM

Quote from: Casimir on April 24, 2007, 10:55:57 PM
Why did you paint your hive white and yellow?

I'm told these different configurations of the diagonals will help to prevent drifting. Helps the bees recognize home.

Mklangelo · April 25, 2007, 09:20:48 PM

Quote from: thegolfpsycho on April 24, 2007, 11:19:07 PM
You have 3 feeders on 1 hive? A bit of overkill, and if they start storing the syrup instead of using it to produce wax, pull the feeders off and let them work for a living. Feed them up in the fall if they need it.

Here is the advice I have got from a coworker who is also a beekeeper. I asked him if I should also feed them some pollen patties at this time:

Mike: pollen is not a problem, lots of danalions are out and the fruit trees are comming in bloom, so they have a ton of pollen to choose from. However, they will go through suger water becouse they have to draw out the comb, they will use the suger water to make honey that they will feed to the younger bees to make wax. Without drawen comb they will go through much much more than if they had comb to work with. Keep an eye on them for the next 2-4 weeks as this is the crucial time. They will make it or break it depending on the weather we get and the food they have. The best advice i can give you is the best piece i got years ago from a 45 year plus bee keeper, he told me to keep feeding them until they stop taking it. It works!! They will tell you when they don't need it any more. The other thing that goes with it is we have to make sure they are queen right and brrod right.
Ron

END QUote

PS. Here is my question regarding this advice. I thought the bees would not take feed as fast without drawn comb to store it.

thegolfpsycho · April 25, 2007, 11:09:59 PM

I'm not saying not to feed them. I'm saying that getting them going drawing comb and brooding up is the goal. But when they start storing it instead of building comb, stop the feeding. I've seen that "feed them till they stop taking it" rule many times in the forum. Ummm... I'm not familiar with my bees ever abandoning a food source until it drys up. Soon they are storing syrup where they should be raising bees. Early swarms follow. I've seen packages swarm the first year, and the cause was overfeeding. Then you have a small colony that you have to feed like crazy to over winter, depending on your location.

Successful beekeeping is alot about timing. Definitely should not be feeding when making honey. That's like going to the store and buying high fructose syrup for your pancakes... I like real maple syrup myself, and I like real honey too.

Mklangelo · April 26, 2007, 12:02:47 AM

Thanks for the replies psycho,

I'll be opening the hives for the first time since installation tomorrow. I'll be checking first for how much of the syrup they have taken. If I'm not seeing alot of syrup taken, I'll leave things the way they are. The main thing I'll look for is queen release. If she is released, I'll be happy for now.

I should mention that the total amount of syrup available to each colony is one gallon (recommended dosage for newly installed packages) of syrup medicated with Fumigilin-B. You may or may not agree with this approach but I'm using it as preventative step. I was also told by the manager of Dadant in Watertown, Wisconsin that I should feed these bees all the way until June. I'm certainly not sure if one philosophy is better than the other. I'm new to this so I'm just trying to balance the differing informatioin I get. I'm a firm believer in taking the "middle road"

Sean Kelly · April 26, 2007, 06:37:36 AM

How can we tell it's syrup they're storing and not nectar? In my hive, out of the 10 frames, only about 3 and 1/2 are drawn out. No brood yet, just eggs. Tons of pollen and what looks like either syrup or nectar. I'm new so I have no clue. My bees are VERY busy, coming and going with loaded pollen baskets. So far I've given them about a pint and a half of syrup. Should I remove the enterance feeder? I was told the same thing of keep feeding them until they stop taking it.

Sean Kelly

bluegrass · April 26, 2007, 08:13:59 AM

:-D Simple syrup honey taste the same a pure honey.....Just don't sell it. I assume that if they are taking syrup and storing "nectar" that they are storing the syrup. You are not going to be extracting honey from your brood boxes anyway so don't worry about it. I also think that three feeders is too much. I would take the bottom feeders off and put an entrance reducer in leaving an entrance of maybe three inches. Those entrance feeders encorage robbing and a new colony is not strong enough to prevent it. If you want the bees to have more access to the feed rip down some 3/8th strips of wood and glue them in a square around that inner cover hole. Then your gallon feeder will rest on that giving the bees better access to the bottom of the feeder.

I like the paint job....white is just too boring.

thegolfpsycho · April 26, 2007, 05:00:34 PM

I don't explain things well, but there is a thread from a year or 2 ago about feeding and overfeeding. 2 of the main players were Finski and MB. About 100 years of combined experience there. I had my first colonys in the 60's. Try to find that thread and it will be covered much better than I can. I'm not trying to stear you wrong. My actual style is a little different, in that I give them a frame of open brood to start, and capped brood later to build them up much faster. I realize that new beeks don't have that option, but limiting the brood nest by filling it with syrup isn't a good plan either. Once the colony has stabilized(new bees emerging and replacing the natural dwindling of a package)they need to start working for a living. I don't think about feeding again unless the drought worsens and they aren't growing. Luckily, many of my hives are suburban and foraging in irrigated and well developed landscape so their production doesn't vary like it can in the outyard.

Michael Bush · April 26, 2007, 08:31:20 PM

>2 of the main players were Finski and MB.

And Brian. And we all agreed!

Mklangelo · April 26, 2007, 08:55:03 PM

Quote from: thegolfpsycho on April 26, 2007, 05:00:34 PM
I don't explain things well, but there is a thread from a year or 2 ago about feeding and overfeeding. 2 of the main players were Finski and MB. About 100 years of combined experience there. I had my first colonys in the 60's. Try to find that thread and it will be covered much better than I can. I'm not trying to stear you wrong. My actual style is a little different, in that I give them a frame of open brood to start, and capped brood later to build them up much faster. I realize that new beeks don't have that option, but limiting the brood nest by filling it with syrup isn't a good plan either. Once the colony has stabilized(new bees emerging and replacing the natural dwindling of a package)they need to start working for a living. I don't think about feeding again unless the drought worsens and they aren't growing. Luckily, many of my hives are suburban and foraging in irrigated and well developed landscape so their production doesn't vary like it can in the outyard.

Well, tomorrow's inspection will tell me alot.