[esatula]

Hello
I just got out of my hives this morning and I’m running 2 deeps and had queen excluders on with a couple of supers. There were a bunch of bees in the supers so that was cool but they have not pulled any comb and they were like this for about a month now. I looked into the top deep and the ring were the honey suppose to be in the frames were all open and looked pretty empty. I have since removed the queen excluders, the question I have is should I put my top feeder back on and feed them? This is my first year so not sure about dearth in my area.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Mitch]

Did you see signs that the hive has a queen?IE eggs and sealed brood.You said hives as you have more than one do they all look the same? How Long have the bees been in the hive and what did you start with a package or nuc? It could be Your hive is doing fine and just not finshed with the brood nest.I do not know your area it cloud be they have not finshed the brood nest because you are in a dearth now.If you are not sure about dearth just take a drive around your hive location a few miles and look and see what is blooming.If you do not see much blooming most likely you in dearth.This is what is happening in my area right now.The golden rod bloom will be on soon and that will brong in alot of honey.Some people say queen excluders are honey excluders.The bees may not have like them on.I do not use excluders.I figure if the lay in my honey super they need the room.

 

[peggjam]

Some people like excluders, some don't. If it matters to you that you could have brood in your supers, then use an excluder. As far as feeding, if they are in a dearth you can usually tell by looking at the broodnest, and the laying pattern of the queen, she will slow down and the pattern will be smaller. If you deciede to feed, you would want to remove your supers so they don't store the feed in them. I would feed if they need it, that will keep the queen laying a good pattern, and also provide food for the brood, as the hive can consume alot of honey during a dearth.

peggjam

 

[Robert Hawkins]

Before you feed, check the brood nest (the two bottom boxes) and see it they have honey. If you can't find food, feed. If they have honey they can eat that and don't need your suger water.

I don't like brood in my honey supers. I use excluders.

It's possible to cheat your honey customers with cheap imitation stuff that the bees made while you were feeding them. If I saw you carrying sugar water to the hives while you had honey supers on, I would never buy your honey again. And neither would my friends. So if you decide to feed, remove the supers.

Hawk

 

[esatula]

Ok I see I miss spoke about the supers the reason I thought I could leave them on to feed for a bit wasn't to extract anything from them I thought it would help them pull them out, because they have not pulled any of it. Yes I do plan on putting the excluders back on to them to keep brood out. I just want them to start pulling comb. They (2hives) were bought as packages this spring. Yes there is a queen cause i did see her. I wasn't planning on any extra surplus this year cause it is mid augast and the supers aren't pulled so I wasn't trying to cheat anything except drawn comb for next year. I am sorry if you got a different impression of what i was thinking. I see your point but that was not my intent at all. If you feel I should not feed with supers on because it is possible to have them pull them from golden rod then I'll pull the supers before feeding. I just wanted a head start for next year.

 

[George Fergusson]

They'll draw comb in the supers when they have nectar to put in them. It's the wrong time of year to feed them to get them to draw comb.

George-

 

[BeeBear]

>> It's the wrong time of year to feed them to get them to draw comb.

Sorry, but I don't understand what difference the time of year makes. Seems to me that if there are workers who can draw comb, feeding would trigger drawing comb. If there was a nectar flow, they would draw it . . . what's the difference?

I guess you could extract the honey produced from the feeding and give it back to them in the spring . . . the net result would be drawn comb, a desirable benefit.

 

[Robert Hawkins]

Sory Esatula,

I certainly had no intention of accusing you. I was trying to explain why we were telling you to remove the supers before feeding. Remember here you will get everyone's opinion. We don't expect you to follow any of them. Look carefully at the reasons behind the suggestions and then decide what applies to your hives.

Notice it's Your hives. You can do what ever you want with them. Keep in mind I'm telling you what works in colorado. Never been to CT.

Good Luck,

Hawk

 

[peggjam]

If you want them to draw the foundation in the supers by all means leave them on. However there is still a word of caution, they will tend to fill the cells as they draw them. So you could inadvently get some sugarwater stored in them, which is ok if you don't extract any honey from them this year, and you could always feed it back to them in the spring.

peggjam