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I've come across something that I thought I might get some thoughts on. About two weeks ago, I checked my strongest colony and in the third deep they had 8 frames of honey/nectar in various stages of capping. There was also about a half baseball sized patch of capped brood centered in the bottom of frames #3-#6. It looked to me like the queen had been up there and managed to lay in those small areas before bumping up to the honey band. I assumed that the brood would emerge and they'd backfill each cell with nectar and eventually cap it. This evening, I had a chance to take a look to see what progress they'd made on honey production, with the thought of taking whatever was mostly capped. I was surprised to find that they'd expanded the brood nest into each of the #3-#6 frames. The honey has been consumed and each of those frames appear to be classic examples of brood frames. I didn't have time to go all the way through the two bottom deeps, but they are pretty light and full of bees. Our flow has been strange this year. I've been seeing lots of white yard clover blooming everywhere. Up until this last week, we'd also had rain about every couple days. Usually somewhere between a half to a full inch. Our temps rose this week and the rain dried up. I still see lots of clover and have noticed the bees working it more. In a normal year, we pull honey once around the 4th of July and maybe again in the fall if there's a substantial flow prior to the goldenrod bloom. I've read that clover produces much less nectar with cooler temps and regular rainfall. I'm wondering if the lingering winter has pushed back the flows and my colony is just going with what's available or if the flow will continue and my harvest will be pushed back accordingly. The bees are in great shape and I'll have to start looking at splits in the future. This queen was a late July Supercedure queen that overwintered well. She started slow this spring, but has been laying pretty good patterns all along. Will all the new brood they're raising translate into honey production in a few more weeks?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
GH
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
GH