I am new beekeeper as of this spring and have some questions I'am having a hard time finding answers to. I have four hives all started from 5 frame nucs late this spring located in southern Minnesota. I feed them 1:1 until they had seven of the ten frames in the second deep drawn out. This was over a month ago. At first they work hard on the supers until about two weeks ago progress seemed to slow with much less activity in the supers. I figured this was a dearth but found that hard to believe with all the clover blooming in the ditch. After checking my hives yesterday I found out that thing were not at a standstill. The second deeps were almost completely filled with capped honey. Only a very small portion of the center most frames were being used to raise brood. Another thing I noticed was the honey is very light in color, it looked similar to when i was feeding 1:1 but with a slight tint of yellow.
My questions are as fallows:
What conclusions can I draw about the seasonal progression of my bees? Is there focus now storing for winter? If this is the case at what point will they shift focus back to the honey supers? We have another full month or so of weather in the 70s and 80s, is it bad they decreased the size of the brood nest so early?
Is having light colored honey desirable? What plants are capable of producing the nectar required to make such honey? Tall white clover is blooming now, could this be it?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
My questions are as fallows:
What conclusions can I draw about the seasonal progression of my bees? Is there focus now storing for winter? If this is the case at what point will they shift focus back to the honey supers? We have another full month or so of weather in the 70s and 80s, is it bad they decreased the size of the brood nest so early?
Is having light colored honey desirable? What plants are capable of producing the nectar required to make such honey? Tall white clover is blooming now, could this be it?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.