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fall flow

7K views 19 replies 17 participants last post by  seamuswildflower 
#1 ·
It was a pretty good flow down here but not good enough to keep me from having to feed some of my hives.how was your fall flow.
 
#2 ·
still foraging aggressively here, but it will be winding down soon. most hives are heavy enough already. i'll probably take a little honey from the best ones and give it to the two or three light ones as needed.
 
#4 ·
Pretty decent fall flow here, which is winding down. The established colonies put up a decent amount of stores, but some of my splits I am feeding to prep for winter. If the hives had not burned through so much of their stores this summer we may have had a nice fall surplus. They were very light going into fall.
 
#5 ·
Extremely heavy flow here. Going into my eighth year and have not seen a fall flow like this. All hives are two deeps some three and at least one super. Some have two supers. I have 7 5/8 spacers for one gallon feed pails that were drawn with natural comb and filled on many hives.
 
#7 ·
Flow seems to be nearly non existent and temps are still in the 80's some days low 90's. bees are eating stores faster than I can feed them. I have more honey in my hive from sugar water this year than they ever made from nectar. 150 lbs on one hive alone. that is going to get split up among 4 hives in a few days. At this rate it would be cheaper to let the bees die and buy nucs next spring. It looks like it will be a long warm fall.
 
#8 ·
My fall flow here is about half over and has been very good this year, for a change. However, I think the bees put most of the nectar down in the brood chambers rather than the supers, which is ok, less I have to feed this fall. Pulled some supers of goldenrod honey, but rather than extract them I will save it for emergency feeding if I need it in late winter/spring. They have really brought in the pollen from goldenrod and asters, I can see now how I end up with full supers of pollen down in the lowest brood box. John
 
#9 ·
"The folks (me ) in Southern Maryland cast all their votes for,,,,,Good Fall Flow.) Sorry, it's the political season:)
Bees really hit the yellow Bearded Crown. Didn't see them on golden Rod. I made my split/Nucs earlier this year so I'm going into winter good.(Bees too) I had one I started late purposely to try my hand at over wintering a Nuc and thought I would have to feed but they have packed it away. Far cry from last year:)
 
#10 ·
As I am still a new beekeeper and was feeding my bees last year, so I don't really know what a good fall flow is for my area. I'm guessing a good flow would mean the hives would not require feeding but since I'm feeding the answer must be no!

One hive must have eaten through all of their stores over July into early August (it was pretty freaking hot), after that they seemed to be putting some honey in the supers but the capped cells were very sporadic. When I checked them on Sunday, I realized my best hive needed to be fed PRONTO! I'm thinking if the summer is as hot next year, I may end up feeding in July and August and then putting supers on in mid-August. They should be able to fill 2 supers and then I can harvest one and then leave the other one for them. We shall see!
 
#14 ·
Decent fall flow here, my strong swarm finished filling their second medium over the deep all by themselves, and after I started feeding 1:1 with vinegar, the weak one suddenly took off and filled one and a half mediums (helped by six or eight gallons of 1:1).

We had a good year overall, pulled a super and a couple frames off my brother's hive, and still may have some honey to harvest once they get done prepping for winter.

Asters are still going strong, goldenrod is about gone, may get some frost Monday morning.

Peter
 
#16 ·
The vinegar (apple cider, not distilled vinegar) lowers the pH and adds aroma -- it spoils less, and the bees are attracted to the odor, hence tend to pick it up faster.

Wish I'd gotten that hivetop feeder much earlier, I suspect they were "lazy" all summer and a shot of syrup that big might have started them up months earlier.

peter
 
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