Hi, I am a new beekeeper and I need some experienced beekeeper(s) to tell me if I am about to do something stupid.
First, some background. It is my understanding that an inventory of drawn comb is very desirable in the spring. As a new beekeeper I have no surplus inventory, only what is currently in the hive. Here in Kentucky, the spring flow is ending; but, the hive still has lots of capped brood and presumably young bees capable of making wax.
I was thinking about feeding sugar syrup to stimulate the drawing of comb and so providing an inventory. I haven’t seen anything, pro or con, in the literature about doing this. I can see two possible negatives:
(1) it would extend the swarm season (since the bees would perceive a nectar flow)
(2) it would extend the queens egg laying into summer resulting in a increased summer population (but there would be the sugar syrup stores to feed them).
Please let me know why I should or shouldn’t do this. Also, let me know if some of my assumptions are wrong.
First, some background. It is my understanding that an inventory of drawn comb is very desirable in the spring. As a new beekeeper I have no surplus inventory, only what is currently in the hive. Here in Kentucky, the spring flow is ending; but, the hive still has lots of capped brood and presumably young bees capable of making wax.
I was thinking about feeding sugar syrup to stimulate the drawing of comb and so providing an inventory. I haven’t seen anything, pro or con, in the literature about doing this. I can see two possible negatives:
(1) it would extend the swarm season (since the bees would perceive a nectar flow)
(2) it would extend the queens egg laying into summer resulting in a increased summer population (but there would be the sugar syrup stores to feed them).
Please let me know why I should or shouldn’t do this. Also, let me know if some of my assumptions are wrong.