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A friend told me to cut through the wax on frames with honey so that the bees would eat it. Well, I did that, and then saw the honey had all spilled down. I removed most of the honey on the hive floor, but lots of bees were covered and lots of honey stayed because my tool could not scrape all of it off.
Will this put my colony at risk?
(By the way, it's a pretty weak colony)
you might need a new friend? bees know how to eat honey without any help. unless there was over a pould of honey probably no damage was done. there is more damage done helping bees rather than let them be bees. as I always say they know what they are doing.
ps. why ruin a good comb? not sure what you mean by a weak colony. good luck
why on earth would you do that? Don't you think that since the bees sealed the honey, they should have no problem unsealing it? Leave them bee. They can take care of themselves just fine. Messing with a weak have like that isn't "helping" them at all.
I didn't comment, since Im a newbee, but I didn't think you want to mess with their stores, they have been doing this for many years and know more about themselves than we do.
If they are weak, you will probably need to feed them now. But what do I know? Just my intuition with pigs and cattle to this point. The nice part of bees is they know pretty much what they need for their colony to survive an average, (in their mind) winter. My cattle and hogs are clueless. But they can't fly. ;)
sometimes a beekeeper will "scratch" the cappings on part of a frame then place it in or against the cluster in an emergency. If it is warm enough the bees shouldn't be harmed from the spill but you may want to keep an eye out for pests attracted to the bottom board. Keep your friend, they probably just worded it wrong.
As warm as it is it may set off robbing. I pulled out some sticky supers today and within 30 minutes they were covered in bees.
If the honey that was lost was their only winter feed. you may need to do some emergency feeding.
I am not sure what to make of this. Maybe the friend meant to take the honey from another hive so as to feed the weak colony.:scratch: