Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

food ?

7K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
We are still have rain almost every day (it's been raining here for months almost daily)and I went to check on my bees today--they are full of bees & brood (old and new) All seven hives are strong and a little testie but they have very little feed. I have 2 arces of sunflowers that have just started to bloom, approx 2 arces of peas just sarting to bloom, 1 arce of corn that's tasseling out and white clover that's blooming. This weekend we will be planting appox. 2 arces of buckwheat. My question is:
Do I need to feed the bees? If so what mixture should I use? Thanks Debbie
 
#3 ·
Feeding now, will make the queen continue brood production. It sounds as if you need to keep feeding so the bee numbers are sufficient to start storing honey. I would also think about putting some pollen substitute on the top bars to help. This is a bad time of year to be heading into with little stores.
If the queen shuts down as they sometimes do about this time, you will almost certainly lose hives this winter for lack of stores.
Feed, feed,feed....
 
#4 ·
I would also assume that the weather pattern is going to stay the same as they are forcasting. If this holds true, then regardless of what your planting, honey stores will be no better than what its been so far this year. Do not wait for the bees or mother nature.
 
#5 ·
Hi,

How much stores are in the hives? It has been raining here as much as you say also (NY). The flow has been very poor but the bees all have most of a deep worth of stores in the 3rd deep. That is rather one of the good points of food chamber or ULBN management that the bees get there cut first and the beekeeper second. But you have to work with where your at I realize. What is your winter setup? One, 2, 3, boxes?

Clay
 
#7 ·
My winter set up has been two deep supers but for some reason our oldest beekeeper and local inspector has said we should have two deeps and med.? Not sure for his reasoning except last year lot of the beekeepers lost hives for not enough feed and they are calling for a longer and harder winter in this area! The bees have the 1 super full of brood and honey, the second deep has only two or three frames full of honey and one has brood in a few! the med that we extracted honey from and replaced 3 weeks ago has nothing in them (all 7 hives). If this weather holds up, the bees are only able to venture out for a few hrs a day for days at the time! I will starting feeding asap!
 
#8 ·
I have been feeding all my new hives all summer with 1:1.They have done wonderfully.They are drawing out comb and capping it. Have you ever planted buckwheat before?We have gotten incredible results in zone 7B.The honey is a tasty beautiful amber and when we combined the dried flowers we were yeilding 14 bushels of seeds per acre thats cleaned and sifted.Ours have reseeded themselves all summer.Its the perfect after the general nectar flow flower for the rest of the summer.
 
#9 ·
We planted buckwheat for them this year and I think it's going to work out well. The nectar flow has pretty much stopped due to drought, but the buckwheat is blooming again.

I feed honey straight. I never dilute it. I use a variety of feeders that are all the same as I use for syrup. Millers, jar with holes over the inner cover, division board etc.

Diluted honey will spoil. Straight honey will not.
 
#10 ·
We have planted buckwheat for 3 yrs. now Just for the bees, turkey, quail and doves. It has done very well at 'filling' the supers quickly in the past. The bees also seem to love all the sunflowers but I think their favorites are the peas( purple hull, silver hull and Mississippi Crowders) that we plant!
 
#12 ·
I have to confess that I starting feeding some bees about 10 days ago. I cant remember the last time that I fed...bet it has been close to 20 years. Its something I dont think much of but it looked like they were goners if I didnt. Im just assuming that there wont be a goldenrod flow. There is plenty of potential flowers but that is a LONG ways from an actual flow.

This ranks as the worst summer I remember for the bees. They look darn poor.
 
#13 ·
My DH thinks the bees should get a job and support themselves! LOL The first year it was new hives and faoundation,It was the drought last year and this year it has been the rain! Go figure....

Michael and all the others who need rain-I sure wish I could send you some. 4" yesterday and 4 and 1/2" this morning but the sun did shine for about 4 hrs today! Flooding all around and the 7 day forecast is for more rain every day!
 
#14 ·
I started feeding my lightest yard(30 hives) a week ago.They are bone light and hungry(they each emptied a gallon feed jug in 3 days),but might get something from the rabbit brush getting ready to bloom.It is the last thing to bloom here and it will always frost sometime during the bloom.Most of the hives have filled their food chambers and there is some surplus to take but it sure wont go down as a good season like I had hopes for.The 2 day rainfall has turned to dust and its now cool and windy,not good honey weather.
 
#15 ·
I usually figure that the last nucs made for the year can make it to 2 deeps before winter if they are real strong (5 frames) and the fall flow is good. The weaker ones or a poor fall flow will get them to a single but they will be fine.

This year I didnt want to hurt the production colonies because the flow was so weak. So I made the nucs with only 2 frames and figured if I could get them to 5-10 frames I would just combine them for fall requeening. Well no flow the last 3 weeks of July didnt get them to anywhere close to 5 frames and the clock is ticking on fall so I scrounged out the feed pails.....I'm still shaking my head at this.
 
#18 ·
NY is like a million micro climates. There are places with excellent goldenrod /aster flows. Where I'm at goldenrod hasn't done well in 8 yrs. But asters with there white honey yet quick granulation is real good. I'm in a good basswood area but was nothing to speak of but others may have had a good yeild. Only clover seems to have done much. Usually wild berries is good here , trefoil is good, sumac, fruit, bass wood, clover and vetches and all those types.
 
#19 ·
I'm only speculating here but it may be due to the smaller size of the bees that the third deeps are filled with honey. Maybe the bees can exploit different flowers and plants that they were unable to utilize before on larger cell sizing. Allowing the bees to stay heavy enough to winter in a bad year. Maybe???

Clay
 
#20 ·
california is like that too.A million micro-climates.That means that by moving the bees a lot you can usually hit a flow sometime during the season.Right now I have bees working star thistle,clover,alfalfa,peppermint fields,purple loosestrife and wildflowers,but not all in the same area.I am really hoping for some thistle.I havent checked those in a couple of weeks,but if they didnt pick any up,I will try to put them on some rabbitbrush somewhere .It has some nectar but tons of pollen.We have a few western goldenrods here and there but bees dont work it here.There are a few asters and I do see a few bees on them.The main focus from here on is getting young bees raised for next years almond pollination.
 
#21 ·
>I'm only speculating here but it may be due to the smaller size of the bees that the third deeps are filled with honey. Maybe the bees can exploit different flowers and plants that they were unable to utilize before on larger cell sizing. Allowing the bees to stay heavy enough to winter in a bad year. Maybe???

Maybe this is part of the reason we see the subcastes in a natural comb hive. Both small and large bees have more potential to find more nectar sources?
 
#22 ·
I read through this forum, and had a few questions. I started feeding my bees on Saturday. I live in Southwest Oklahoma, and it won't frost until around September or October. The bees drank 1 gallon of sugar water w/in 3 days, so I fed them more. The problem is that their second brood chamber has not filled out all the wax foundation (new hive this year, like about 3 frames in each hive, also the first set of packages arrived dead so didn't get the wild plum or much blackberry pollination), and therefore there is little honey for winter stores. How long do you feed the sugar water? Also, there is alfalfa blooming, along with other weeds, but we haven't had but around 10.5" of rain since January...drought is killing us and the weeds aren't even blooming well. Will the bees be able to finish storing food for the winter?

------------------
 
#23 ·
>The problem is that their second brood chamber has not filled out all the wax foundation (new hive this year, like about 3 frames in each hive,

If you mean that there is only three frames drawn and filled in each of the bottom and top deep brood boxes you need to rearrange your frames.

Take the top brood off and remove the undrawn frames in the bottom box and install the drawn frames from the top box into the lower one. Put the brood in the center and the stores on the outside.

Don't put the second brood on until the lower is at least 80% drawn and covered with bees.

If I misunderstood, well, nevermind.

By all means keep the beed bag on until next spring, just change the mixture from 1 to 1 to a thicker 2 to one in October.
 
#25 ·
Just keep feeding, they will consume a lot of sugar to build out the comb. They will also store some of the sugar in the comb just as though it was honey. Not nearly as good for them though. Check out Dee Lusby's comments on this web site about feeding, good information.
 
#26 ·
It's almost mid august, and I'd like to see more drawn comb here and there. Should I keep 1 1 mixture or should I start the 2 1 mixture and take what comb I have and be happy with it?

I worry too much about the bees stores....

Can they draw comb on 2 1 mixture?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top