Supposed to rain all week, should I feed the girls.

[lupester]

Looks like rain here in Dallas/Fort Worth for the next week. Should I go ahead and feed the girls so they don't deplete their honey?

[sqkcrk]

Aren't you in the middle of a drought? So, maybe you should have been feeding them to keep them from starving already.

We've had rain for each of most of the last 30 or more days, here in NY. We're going to add a season to our year from now on, The Rainy Season. It did this last year too.

If they have a good amount of honey, a week of rain shouldn't really hurt them. But I imagine beekeeping in TX is somewhat different than here up north.

[lupester]

We are not too bad in terms of water in the D/FW area. I still am finding some mesquite trees that are blooming. I live so close to the suburbs where people water their lawns and keep the flowers blooming that the girls should get some minimal flow but none now that the rain is coming. I will take the rain any day though.

[Paraplegic Racehorse]

Up here, we had a sudden cold-n-wet snap about ten days ago in the middle of the honey flow. Right now, the girls are cooped up in the hives trying to stay warm and greedily eating what little honey they already had stored. I started seeing culled drone brood on the landing-board on Day 2. They started evicting adult drones on Day 4, the same day I started seeing culled worker brood.

I did not plan on harvesting this year. I did already plan on a heavy feed regimen to make sure they have enough to get through my nine-month long "winter" (total dearth - absolute zero forage). I guess I'm just going to start feeding a week earlier than I originally though... :(

In TX, I don't think a week or ten days will significantly affect their survival probabilities, though it may affect your harvest. Do NOT feed if you plan to harvest at all. Most of the feed you provide will get packed into the larder rather than being immediately consumed.

[Brent Bean]

If they have honey stored and you say some local honey plants are in bloom, they will take care of themselves. A week isn’t anything, we go from late October to mid April and they manage and flourish on the honey they store up to that point.
If they are out of honey and a quick look will answer that question feed. Otherwise save the sugar for when they really need it.

[NorthWest_bee_guy]

Yes, a week of rain is not going to kill them. I live in the pacific North west the rain starts about sept ends july feed in spring or if they are light in fall.

[daknoodle]

I wouldn't worry about it. At least I havn't worried about it so far this week. We have been getting windows of sunshine during the day, though it does take a few days for the flowers to start flowing again.

In any case, they should be alright. Do you know how many frames of honey they have?

[lupester]

My large hives are fine. I have 6 hives (1-2 meduims) that are from 2 hives that were split in June. Most are building up fine, one is slow to build up. daknoodle are you getting any flow down there? I have some Vitex growing but not enough to support 10 hives.