After harvesting

[hapinen]

I just pulled my first honey! Going to extract it Thursaday! :D I was wondering now with 2 supers worth less room what do the bees do? I have quite a strong hive and I'm hoping because of less room they have that they don't want to swarm. I'm hoping they stay - so what does happen?

Krista

[alpha6]

They should start back filling the brood nest...which is what you want to happen. They shouldn't swarm this time of year as they should be slowing down the amount of bees.

[treeoflife]

As they backfill the brood nest, is it with eggs, or with pollen and nectar??? (As you might guess, this is my first year!) Thanks.

[RayMarler]

This time of year they backfill the broodnest with nectar to pack in tight for the winter. Pollen is used as it comes in for raising brood, it's not needed as stores for winter as it's the honey they eat and turn it into heat. Pollen stores over winter will give good stores for raising brood early in the spring.

[treeoflife]

Thanks for that info. Makes perfect sense, as I've noticed a lot of nectar cells in my boxes the last time I checked them. And the bees are still bringing in lots of pollen, so I'll presume that this bodes well for next spring's brood. :thumbsup:

[Motown]

Tree.

A little late for harvesting in Ontario, how much honey did you leave for the girls?

I'm down here in Detroit, I would say that you have zero chance of a swarm as the drones have already been kicked out of the hive for a couple of weeks.