[doug reed]

One of our hives does not seem to want to store honey. Lots of capped brood but very little stores around them. It has been so dry in the foothills of So Cal that we are still feeding now. The hive next to the lazy one seems to be storing normally. Should we cut them off? There has been some light rains recently and they are finding things to work.

 

[Oldtimer]

Usually this means the hive has a health issue.

There was a thread a while back asking if feeding bees makes them lazy and wow it got pretty heated!

My own opinion is feeding does not make them lazy. Unless the hive gets so full they just cannot store anything in which case yes, they stop work if it's not swarming season.

 

[psfred]

If you have a hive not taking syrup, try adding a few tablespoons per gallon of apple cider vinegar. Sometimes the bees won't recognize unscented syrup as food, believe it or not (sugar has no smell). I had a hive that ignored syrup and was in dire need of stores for winter -- added the vinegar and they sucked down something like 7 gallons in a week and filled a couple mediums.

It's always an adventure with bees.

Peter