I recently caught a swarm about 3 to 4 #'s of bees. I only had 2 frames of drawn comb to give them, the rest was foundation. I also have a few hives that did not fill out the foundation I gave them in late May and I was feeding them. Will the bees start drawing comb if they need it or is it too late in the year? The swarm was clean of mites, so I am hoping to try to get them through the winter.
I have had the worst time getting the bees to draw out foundation this year. Any ideas.
Tony
Not too late. Keep feeding them, and they should draw everything just fine.
Feed them one sugar to two water to begin with. This will stimulate the queen to lay and the workers to draw out comb. As time goes on, end of sept, go to one to one then after a few weeks start up feeding heavy with 2 sugar to one water. Keep this up till the days are around 50 degrees and stop. The 2 sugar to one water will be the closes to consistency of honey. The bees will be ok.
Dan
I always hive a swarm on foundation. They will have drawn the chamber out next time you vuisit them. Swarems are full of young bees full of honey, just waiting to get thier new home started. Might as well take advantage of this fact. They seem to work harder during the first month of swarming than most colonies usually do, in preps for winter
Ian
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