NewBee questions

[teltek]

This is my first year at beekeeping and have lots of questions. I have read Beekeeping for Dummies a few times and "How to Keep Bees and Sell Honey" that came with my starter kit. But I have a friend that is in his second year of beekeping and he is geting advice from a seasoned beekeeper and passing it along to me.

#1 Dont feed your new package bees!
(all the books tell me to feed them)

#2 Bees will not make comb past june15 !
(I cant find anything about this statement anywhere, is there fact to this? Keep in mind we live in North Alabama)

Thanks for any advice you can give if statement #2 is true I dont see how my new hive will make it through the winter (I dont think the second hive body frames will be filled out by then). I have been feeding my bees 1:1 sugar syrup and plan on doing that until all the frames ase filled out with comb unless you guyes can talk me out of it.

[iddee]

#1..He's full of "not honey" :rolleyes:

#2..He's full of "not honey" :rolleyes:

#1 from me...Feed them until they won't take anymore

#2 from me...They will make wax anytime they need it to store incoming supplies.

[Sundance]

LOL........... This experienced beekeeper is on crack!

I'm with iddee.....

#1 Feed them untilthey take no more or a flow is on. You should have some kind of flow going?? Watch to see that they do not become honey bound.

#2 We'd be in deep do do if they did indeed stop making comb on June 15th (must be a national bee holiday).

My biggest advise (as relitive rookie myself) is to ignore this sausage!!

[onlygoodSHBisdeadone]

Feed your bees untill all comb is drawn out. You will probable see they will cut back on syrup either this week or next as we are close to starting main flow. which usually runs untill mid to end of june when sumac finishes bloom. by this time boxes should be drawn out with some stores but not much if this is a recent package. If comb is not all drawn out by then and you don't start feeding after flow they will be inclined to not draw comb again untill Golden rod starts blooming and bringing in pollen but rather back fill comb with honey as summer heat here tends to shut down queen brood rearing but bees will draw out what they need. Just be sure you have some honey stores for July & Aug. We get a strong Golden Rod flow Sept-Nov at which time they will take care of thing in short order for winter.
Beek gave June 15th as date because he is strictly speaking in terms of our flow as being necter source which is usually ends around then.

[ May 06, 2006, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: onlygoodSHBisdeadone ]

[Ruben]

Experienced does not always mean succesful. Teltek nobody on this site has steered me wrong yet. Thats what is great about this site, you get answers from lots of people not just one!

[Michael Bush]

>#1 Dont feed your new package bees!
(all the books tell me to feed them)

I'd feed them until they have some comb, some capped brood and some foragers. But sometimes if you keep feeding they will fill the brood nest full of syrup and swarm when they haven't got many bees yet. Sometimes they will not. But once they are reasonablly established (have some honey stored for rainy days) they will do better foraging.

>#2 Bees will not make comb past june15 !
(I cant find anything about this statement anywhere, is there fact to this? Keep in mind we live in North Alabama)

I've see bees draw comb in March if it's warm and I put an empty frame in the brood nest. I've seen bees draw comb in September if they need comb. But usually in September they don't need comb. Of course they build it the most and the quickest in a flow. But they need it the most in a flow.

[Ross]

Some of my best comb drawing is in September and October, even into November, on golden rod and fall aster.