Brood, Larva, Eggs....But very little honey

**USCBeeMan** · 08-27-2009, 07:32 PM

Anyone else having this problem? I have several hives like this. Queen has laid in all boxes. I would put on a queen excluder but some of these are 8-frame hives and I don't have any 8-frame excluders.

Would build a couple of 8-frame excluders but don't know what to use for the grill. Could I use wire cloth? If so, what size? I know that #8 keeps all of the bees in. What size would let out everything but the queen?

Getting kind of worried. All of these bees and bees-to-bee and no honey for the winter.

I want to start trapping out a couple more trees. Guess I could move some of this excess brood/larva/eggs to some boxes for the trap outs.

Also, is it getting to late to start up some trap outs? It stay fairly nice here until late Oct or Nov. I can feed them if need be.

**Joseph Clemens** · 08-27-2009, 07:49 PM

Sounds like you may need to provide supplemental feed for Winter stores.

Two or three of my twenty Nucs are in a situation such as you describe, and I am feeding them now, I plan to feed my Nucs whenever they need the help - my weather is warm enough that the bees usually find a little forage all year long or can easily be fed. Though some hives seem to be better foragers than others.

**Beeslave** · 08-27-2009, 07:53 PM

Use standard excluder and let it hang out past the box on one side

Then feed, feed and feed

**USCBeeMan** · 08-27-2009, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by Beeslave

Use standard excluder and let it hang out past the box on one side

Then feed, feed and feed

Thought of that and put the excluder on top. But when you add the top box there seems to be room for bees to come and go all around the 2 boxes. It will not work because the length is the same but the width isn't. So there is a big crack on the two sides of the boxes which will allow bees to come and go...... as in any bees from any colony.

**Josh Carmack** · 08-27-2009, 11:57 PM

Originally Posted by USCBeeMan

It will not work because the length is the same but the width isn't. So there is a big crack on the two sides of the boxes which will allow bees to come and go...... as in any bees from any colony.

Duct tape or any other improvised means

I guess if you could find it try # 5 cloth that's 0.2" maybe #6 but I think that'll be quite too small for the workers also coming in at 0.16666" and 3/16 comes in at 0.1875"

I'm willing to bet you won't find either of those cloth sizes, or they won't work anyway, else you would see a lot of cheap excluders being made and sold that way. I only pay 0.45 per square foot retail for my #8 That would cost me about 1.05 for an excluder made from cloth.

**B. Haning** · 08-28-2009, 06:24 AM

5 mesh hardware cloth makes good excluders. Some bee supply companies stock it.

**BeeOld** · 08-28-2009, 06:33 AM

Walter T. Kelly, Clarkson, KY has a plastic excluder, if it is still made without a frame like it was years ago you could cut it down. I'm not sure how it is made now.

**Ross** · 08-28-2009, 07:46 AM

Bees make honey when there is surplus forage. You need to feed, not limit brood rearing. Brood makes big strong hives for the next flow. You should be seeing a fall flow now or soon. If you get to winter and don't have enough stores, lay down a sheet of newsprint, wet it, and pour 10 pounds of sugar on it. Cover with an empty super.