[Withano]

Hi all,
It seems like my hives this year are building up really slowly. It's now late June and most of the packages I bought haven't even grown to fill three medium boxes yet (I use three mediums instead of two deeps for brood), much less adding boxes for honey. They stopped taking sugar syrup a month ago.
Is this typical this year? Am I just being a worry-wart?

I missed our area's beekeepers' meeting this month, so I've no way to compare notes. FWIW, I've been beekeeping for a three years now - only a few hives at a time.

Thanks in advance,
Brion (with an "o")

 

[MJuric]

Hi all,
It seems like my hives this year are building up really slowly. It's now late June and most of the packages I bought haven't even grown to fill three medium boxes yet (I use three mediums instead of two deeps for brood), much less adding boxes for honey. They stopped taking sugar syrup a month ago.
Is this typical this year? Am I just being a worry-wart?

I missed our area's beekeepers' meeting this month, so I've no way to compare notes. FWIW, I've been beekeeping for a three years now - only a few hives at a time.

Thanks in advance,
Brion (with an "o")

How many packages did you get? Over the years I've found that some packages take off and others don't, regardless of weather. I'm north of you and put in four packages this spring. One is WAY behind because it had queen issues, the other three appear to be about average for this time of year, just starting to fill out the first honey super. I use two deeps for brood and don't add the honey super until the two deeps are full of bees and appear to be filling up the last of the 20% or so of the frames.

My hives that over wintered seem to be just as diverse. One that is taking off with tons of bees despite the fact that I split it earlier in the year, working on it's third honey super and others that are building up slowly and a few average. PLENTY out there to be feeding on right now with all the rain.

~Matt

 

[Withano]

Thanks, Matt.
I got four packages. I had one hive that survived the winter and is now starting to fill the honey super. She's a great queen and I'm working to develop a couple more queens from her. The four packages are all doing about the same - about 2/3 of the way with brood, but no honey supers yet. That's despite the fact that they're spread out over three different locations.
Thanks for the data point, though!
Brion