From: "deelusbybeekeeper" <deelusbybeekeeper@excelonline.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 10:59:31 -0700
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Wintering Fall Swarms (Re:best mating time?)

Clay wrote:
> I almost always utilize such swarms to draw foundation. In almost every
> instance the girls rapidly draw combs. Often quite a few a drawn by the
> next day. The queen can be seen laying in cells that are not completely
> finished being constructed. So populations still are good and you get
> new combs.

Reply:
This is quite true Clay and right after we shook down in 1997 we pretty much
had to do this for a couple of years, but down here it was extremely
difficult on the swarms as our honey flows are not as heavy as yours. Also
the average size swarm for this area is about football size to basketball
size. Your 8-10 lb swrms in fall sound huge compared to our desert
standards. But it is an extremely good way to get smaller new good combs
drawn.

> Yes. The easy way to remedy this is to just add a deep(full) honey
> super on top of the colony making a triple. Yes you lose some of
> your crop, or was it really yours? Either way you get it back the
> following season.

Reply:
Here in Arizona with the fall crops you mostly fill up for winter to be
heavy from the third super down with pollen and honey and bees and if you
are lucky on wet years you get to extract the 4th or 5th. Feeding can be
expensive with whole supers, but some of us do it and balance honey frames
back to the new fall starts. You are right though, you get it back the
following season in the spring.

Feeding real honey and pollen does indeed seem to make bees survive better then just sugar syrup alone though. Have you noticed this Clay?

Also do you seem to recognize before hand which have a pretty good chance of survival over a long tough winter vs those that do not by any visual
characteristics or action?

Regards

Dee