No stores?

[mrpush]

Hello,


Well, I,ve got 5 hives here in SW PA.

Two were well established in spring, one was caught swarm, and 2 started from 2-3 frame nucs.

Only 1 established hive has *some* honey. The others have very little to none. All hives appear healhy, good lay patterns etc and they have some pollen stores but its nothing but full frames of brood with NO honey or pollen in corners like they normally do. There is some pollen in the outermost frames, but little to not honey.

During the July durth, I did feed a bit as the 2 nuc hives had ZERO of anything and I think I caught them just before starvation. Hive 1 did build up some half decent honey in spring, but they just would not cap it. I finally took a few frames but fed it back to all hives when I noted lack of stores.


Season seems normal, not unusually wet or dry. They are in a feild full of golden rod but nothing in most.

What little honey is there is a very dark brown and stong smelling.

My weekly to bi-weekly checks are always good. Good brood patterms, lots of bees.

Where the heck is all the honey? Now this is an new area for the hives this year, in susburban/rural PA and it seems they would have tons of sources to me but nill. Its only 2 miles from my last years hives that did about a full HS by the end of first flow.

Should they not have a good bit saved up by now for winter? Do they tend to pick up stores quickly as it get colder due to lower brood production? Seems to me that brood production is still in full tilt, eggs, uncapped and capped brood all over, probably more FULLY capped fulley filled frames however then uncapped, but still lots of eggs and larva uncapped.

I'm confused.

Where are all the stores? I would think there would be at least a few frames full in each by now, no?

I started feeding 1.5:1 syrup to help winter buildup. Am I missing something? How much feeding should I expect to get them winter ready? Do paper combines? Ideas? Reasons?

Thanks,

MP

[Michael B]

I have found the same situation. Very little honey being stored. I have been feeding for a couple weeks now with 2:1.

All 14 of my hives still have lots of brood. That is where the honey is going. Just remember the overage hive has 400-600 pounds of honey that we never see. It is consumed.

I hope the queens slow down soon but yesterday I had hives with 3-5 frames of eggs.....so not that soon. I am leaving the supers on this winter because of how light they are. I am feeding each hive and open feeding too. I did a quick lift of the hives today and still pretty light.

Looks like I will be making some candy boards for winter. I will check again in two weeks and see if they have added weight.

My local beeks are in the same situation.

[wheeler88]

I see the same thing here. I also started two hives this spring, and with some splitting have ended up with 5 hives.

During the last week of August 3 of them swarmed. First time for me to see a swarm that late in the year.

Maybe that's where most of the honey went. mrpush asked some good questions, I have one more, Can a hive survive the winter on sugar syrup only...

[indypartridge]

Can a hive survive the winter on sugar syrup only...

Yes. There are beekeepers who take all honey and feed bees syrup for wintering.

As for MrPush's questions, it's hard to say. They are common questions: why does one colony produce great while the one next to it does nothing? Why is my friend 3 miles away getting record harvests while I'm having to feed? All I can say is that if your colonies are light on stores heading into winter, then feed until they have enough to overwinter on.

[wheeler88]

Thanks for the info indy, I might have to do some extra feeding but we still have a couple weeks of warm weather................