no honey

Kathyp · May 30, 2007, 11:41:28 AM

i just went to the bottom of both hives. in spite of a heavy flow the last few weeks, they have stored almost no honey. in the brood frames, the brood is top to bottom most having no honey at all. on other frames there is a very small amount of honey and small amount of pollen. this is hard to understand as i see them coming in loaded all day long. they drawn out frames that are completely empty.

we are in a lull now until the blackberries bloom. i have put 1 gallon on each hive.

? what in the heck have they done with the stuff they have been bringing in???

fishawk · May 30, 2007, 11:54:43 AM

One gallon on each hive?

Kathyp · May 30, 2007, 12:03:21 PM

1 gallon....syrup :-)

fishawk · May 30, 2007, 12:11:09 PM

If your feeding the bees they dont have any reason to go out and gather honey . Just a thought

Mici · May 30, 2007, 12:13:43 PM

oh dear fishhawk, could you at least read the post?
she has to feed now, when the flow is over, and still i think that feeding doesn't hinder bees work eagerness.

Kathy, how strong is the flow, and how much did they draw? maybe you gave them too much work...maybe

Kathyp · May 30, 2007, 12:27:59 PM

the flow was strong. it was raspberries for the most part. they did have a huge amount of competition. i have never seen so many kinds of bees and other flying things on the berries. other things are blooming, but the strong flow is coming to an end for now. as for work, i don't think the one hive had to much room. the second one that is not drawing the second box (even after reversing boxes) does not seem to be expanding. there is brood, but for some reason the hive does not seem to be building up. i have no explanation.

if this had been happening in one hive, i'd think it was a quirk of the hive. since both hives are almost empty of honey and pollen, it must be something else.

Mici · May 30, 2007, 12:30:16 PM

ma<be the rasphberries simply didn't produce nectar, or any reasonable ammounts of it.

fishawk · May 30, 2007, 12:32:31 PM

Mic, I read the post she said the heavy flow was over . but she lives in Oregon its pretty close to sw Washington and there is always something in bloom here . Yes the blackberries have not started yet . The bees still have plenty of other plants and flowers to go to.

Kathyp · May 30, 2007, 12:46:47 PM

fishhawk, you are correct. i have no good explanation for the lack of stores. i was hoping someone here would :-)

abejaruco · May 30, 2007, 01:12:44 PM

Did you put syrup two months before the flow?

You have not honey because bees only think about the brood, and swarming if possible. Finally honey for winter if they knows, genetically, the flow (thats the reason any races can not survive in North Africa (an example).

But if you have enough bees before the flow because you feed, or because they have enough honey, you can find honey.

DonÂ´t feed now. Use the whip! :evil:

annette · May 30, 2007, 01:15:40 PM

Hi Kathyp

This is Annette from Placerville California.

I have a similar post as yours on this forum. All brood and no honey. Same situation and my bees are so active bringing in stuff. Have you searched carefully on all frames?? You might find they have at least a bit of honey for themselves and according to most people on this forum, you do not feed when they are bringing in stuff.

Sounds like your hive, as well as mine, has a queen that is a great layer and needs the room. I am just patiently waiting until they are ready to make some honey, which I believe they will get around to soon.

Good luck
Annette

Kathyp · May 30, 2007, 01:33:30 PM

i don't know. you know how sometimes you look at something and it's just wrong. that's the way it was when i got into both these hives. i don't expect any honey this year. they are building up to slowly. i don't think that a gallon of syrup between major flows will do any harm at this point....i could be wrong.

these are packages and i did feed when i put them in. then the weather got better and they started bringing in stuff, so i quit feeding. for whatever reason one is very slow to build up and the other is just ok.

guess i'll see what happens in a week or so.....

doak · May 30, 2007, 02:05:10 PM

Just make sure they don't run out of stores during the lull. They have been using what they got for brood rearing and surviving.
If your blackberries haven't bloomed yet you're in good shape, lots of bees. Now make sure you have plenty supers,that is, If your not as dry as we are here in Georgia and surronding States.

Here in georgia we are in a position now, unless we have somewhere to migrate to, we need to bee careful how much honey we take. So far I have extracted 160 lbs, and will get at least another 100.
Not as much as I expected at first, but great for the drout condition.
doak

Michael Bush · May 30, 2007, 11:43:09 PM

They burn a frame of honey and a frame of pollen and an equal amount of water to make a frame of brood. They can burn up a lot of honey rearing brood.

Kathyp · May 30, 2007, 11:49:01 PM

so feeding them is ok?

pdmattox · May 31, 2007, 12:05:54 AM

I would feed till they start a band of syrup over the brood.

JP · May 31, 2007, 12:55:21 AM

It has been mentioned many times in these forums that the bees will not take feed when a flow is on, and that has been my experience as well. It's ok to offer them feed, and if they take it then they need it, if not they will get it elsewhere.

Michael Bush · May 31, 2007, 08:09:39 AM

>It has been mentioned many times in these forums that the bees will not take feed when a flow is on

That has not been my experience. SOMETIMES they will stop taking syrup when there is a flow on. Sometimes they just plug up the brood nest with the syrup and swarm.

Kathyp · May 31, 2007, 10:50:55 AM

i will keep an eye on space, but at this moment, it is not an issue. they have drawn a lot of comb, but it is almost all empty except for the brood.

thanks all.

Cindi · May 31, 2007, 10:58:41 AM

Kathy, I have been of the mindset, that package bees will not give very much extra honey (for humans) in their first year. They use their honey for themselves and brood rearing. Wait, your bees will probably build up just fine and you may have a little taste of honey to call your own. That is a bonus. I think that going into the beekeeping season with package bees is the year of build-up. This year, you are armed with lots of knowledge, to bring your bees healthy and big numbers into the winter, to bring you strongly into the land of milk and honey for next year. Good luck. I think that you are just underestimating your bees. Give them a little syrup, why not? They would consume it themselves more than likely before they would store it for honey that you might eat. Living, learning, love the life that you are livin'. You are doing a great job with your bees, I am proud of you. Cindi