What are the odds?

943 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by D Coates, Jun 18, 2010

Growing Boy

Discussion Starter · Jun 18, 2010

So I go out to pull the feeder put in a queen excluder and a medium super.
I had the feeder on a 2' shim. Naturally as is these girls habit they filled the space with burr comb. Checked it out for any sign of the queen, nope, put it next to the hive did my business and closed things up.
Went out about 1/2 an hour later and just as expected most of the bees had made a beeline (sorry) back into the hive. Inspecting the feeder more closely I noticed a small section of brood. So, two questions.
First, I'm assuming since the girls hightailed it back into the hive, the queen was not with the bunch I pulled with feeder, right?
Second, should I just leave the feeder out there and let them clean up the honey? I'm not too worried about robbing as over the years I have seen very very few native bees. Wasps and Carpenter bees do most of the pollinating around here.

Save

1 - 2 of 2 Posts

D Coates

· #2 · Jun 18, 2010

1. Probably, but look very closely at any remaining bees with that brood.

2. If there's flow going on they will probably ignore the honey and something else will eat it (raccoon, ringtail, possum, skunk, fire ants, etc.). I would crush and strain and either feed it back to them when any flow dries up or eat it myself.

Save

1 - 2 of 2 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month