Hello all,
As a new beek I've managed to keep 3 out of 4 hives alive all winter and feel good about that. I lost 1 due to the small cluster and below 20 weather. I ordered some MegaBee and supplimented 1 hive with it and they seem to have responded well. I've manipulated all 3 hives by either moving capped honey around, reversing the hive bodies and have had 2+ (almost) full frames of new bees hatch out so far - which is encouraging. I put out a 5-gallon feeding station a few days ago of 1-1 but nothing directly on the hives as they seem to still have some nectar in them. The bees have found it but aren't working it hard at this time and I believe that's due partially to natural availability and some store still in the hive. Pollen and nectar have been coming in to some degree, but nothing 'heavy'. I don't know what else is coming for spring as our nectar flow doesn't start for about another 10 days to 2 weeks but feed pretty good at this time. I have a couple of comments or questions that I hope others will have some advice on.
1. I've added, to 1 of my hives, another deep box and moved mostly capped honey up top and added a few frames of drawn comb down below to incourage more brood growth. I always leave a frame of capped honey next to the brood though whenever I moved things around. Within the top hive on this box, and on another one I added only 5 or 6 frames of drawn and undrawn comb because I had so much trouble with SHB last year. I only added the new deep hive body because I had 8-9 frames of bees covering the tops of the frames. Was this the correct thing to do - by adding more 'space' but not filling it all up? I hear 2 general concepts - 1 being to add only what they can actually guard/work and the other that if you don't add it 'all' then you end up with a mess (burcomb, incorrect frames, etc) What's working for others?
2. I know that generally and usually in the spring you add 1-1 to stimulate both the queen into laying and draw out comb. None of supers have been drawn out and I need them to all be drawn out and filled as soon as they can. I won't add the supers until they fill out the 2nd deep, but should I start feeding - directly - 1-1 on each hive to get them to go ahead and drawn out/fill that box? I don't really want to continue feeding 1-1 while they are bringing in nectar as I want the honey to be all 'honey' and not sugar-honey-water.
3. Whenever I made up the MegaBee sub I made it about 3/16" thick and cut it up into approx. 2" strips and fed the hive in a 'hard' form instead of soft as mentioned in several posts around here. Should I continue to feed or add this to a hive or 2 and stimulate them more with our nectar flow 'around the corner'? We usually get our 'nectar flow' on towards the end of this month and it goes till (sometimes) mid to late June.
BTW - I don't know about others water situation but for the last couple of weeks the bees have been 'hammering' my water fountain. I keep saying I'm going to drain and refill with fresh water but they don't seem to mind and I've seen them on the 'scub' almost as much as directly on the water. Must be some residuals there they like as they seem to leave my 'fresh' water fountain alone.
thanks for any thoughts or suggestions -
As a new beek I've managed to keep 3 out of 4 hives alive all winter and feel good about that. I lost 1 due to the small cluster and below 20 weather. I ordered some MegaBee and supplimented 1 hive with it and they seem to have responded well. I've manipulated all 3 hives by either moving capped honey around, reversing the hive bodies and have had 2+ (almost) full frames of new bees hatch out so far - which is encouraging. I put out a 5-gallon feeding station a few days ago of 1-1 but nothing directly on the hives as they seem to still have some nectar in them. The bees have found it but aren't working it hard at this time and I believe that's due partially to natural availability and some store still in the hive. Pollen and nectar have been coming in to some degree, but nothing 'heavy'. I don't know what else is coming for spring as our nectar flow doesn't start for about another 10 days to 2 weeks but feed pretty good at this time. I have a couple of comments or questions that I hope others will have some advice on.
1. I've added, to 1 of my hives, another deep box and moved mostly capped honey up top and added a few frames of drawn comb down below to incourage more brood growth. I always leave a frame of capped honey next to the brood though whenever I moved things around. Within the top hive on this box, and on another one I added only 5 or 6 frames of drawn and undrawn comb because I had so much trouble with SHB last year. I only added the new deep hive body because I had 8-9 frames of bees covering the tops of the frames. Was this the correct thing to do - by adding more 'space' but not filling it all up? I hear 2 general concepts - 1 being to add only what they can actually guard/work and the other that if you don't add it 'all' then you end up with a mess (burcomb, incorrect frames, etc) What's working for others?
2. I know that generally and usually in the spring you add 1-1 to stimulate both the queen into laying and draw out comb. None of supers have been drawn out and I need them to all be drawn out and filled as soon as they can. I won't add the supers until they fill out the 2nd deep, but should I start feeding - directly - 1-1 on each hive to get them to go ahead and drawn out/fill that box? I don't really want to continue feeding 1-1 while they are bringing in nectar as I want the honey to be all 'honey' and not sugar-honey-water.
3. Whenever I made up the MegaBee sub I made it about 3/16" thick and cut it up into approx. 2" strips and fed the hive in a 'hard' form instead of soft as mentioned in several posts around here. Should I continue to feed or add this to a hive or 2 and stimulate them more with our nectar flow 'around the corner'? We usually get our 'nectar flow' on towards the end of this month and it goes till (sometimes) mid to late June.
BTW - I don't know about others water situation but for the last couple of weeks the bees have been 'hammering' my water fountain. I keep saying I'm going to drain and refill with fresh water but they don't seem to mind and I've seen them on the 'scub' almost as much as directly on the water. Must be some residuals there they like as they seem to leave my 'fresh' water fountain alone.
thanks for any thoughts or suggestions -
