[Johnnymms]

I did my second inspection of the year today and noticed a few things. First, both hives were booming with bees. I noticed some queen cups in each hive but they were just a bunch of empties from what I could tell. I scarred them all and scraped off the excess drone comb that was hanging between boxes and otherwise cluttering the area. Almost all the frames in each hive are being used by the bees. I noticed new nectar being stored in each hive ( I have fed them nothing but solid sugar through a candy board until today). I placed 3-4 new, undrawn frames in each hive a few weeks ago to give them more room and to also steal some old comb for my swarm traps. These frames are starting to get drawn out but a few remain mostly undrawn/unused. Temps will be in the 50s with rain the next 3-4 days. I placed a hive top feeder on each hive and split 1 gallon of syrup between the two hives. I am wondering if this was the right move. I don't want them to be without a food source if the weather is bad the next few days and they stay in. I also don't want them storing the syrup in the available cells and taking up valuable laying space. If they are bringing in nectar should they be alright without the feeders? Should I let them have the half gallon each and then try to put a super on? Last year they kept swarming so they never even drew out a frame in the supers I placed. So I would be placing undrawn supers on each hive. Is the presence of new nectar enough to allow them to do their thing without feeding them the syrup? I also thought feeding the syrup could get them to draw out the super quicker, but I have read you never feed when honey supers are on to keep the honey pure. Although, my super frames are undrawn, so maybe it wouldn't matter at first? Do you think I did the right thing? Any advice or criticism is welcome. Thanks !

 

[RayMarler]

I think you did the right thing. The half gallon feed will help get them through the next few days of bad weather. I don't think you need to feed any more though as they were storing fresh nectar and drawing out comb. They would not be drawing out comb if there was not enough nectar flows going on. I think you can remove the feeders when they become empty and let them start the season. I think you should add the super now so they know they have room to expand into. Do not use a queen excluder yet, incase you were thinking about it. Let them get going on the super without obstruction. This is all just what I think and would do with the information you have given.

 

[Johnnymms]

I think you did the right thing. The half gallon feed will help get them through the next few days of bad weather. I don't think you need to feed any more though as they were storing fresh nectar and drawing out comb. They would not be drawing out comb if there was not enough nectar flows going on. I think you can remove the feeders when they become empty and let them start the season. I think you should add the super now so they know they have room to expand into. Do not use a queen excluder yet, incase you were thinking about it. Let them get going on the super without obstruction. This is all just what I think and would do with the information you have given.

Thanks for the input Ray. Do you recommend putting the empty super on between the two brood boxes to get them to start working on drawing it out? Last Spring I placed supers on the top of each hive but the bees did not touch them for most of the year. Only in the Fall did they actually start drawing some pretty sad looking comb. Someone at the time mentioned I should always add a super or any new box by sandwiching it in between two boxes that are already being used by the bees. Another mentioned I should melt some beeswax and paint it onto the frames along with some sugar water. I don't want them to ignore it again this year! Thanks again for your time!

 

[RayMarler]

If they are full of plastic foundation, then I'd re-coat them with beeswax, yes, this seems to help out very much. Coating them with sugar water has never worked for me.

I never run 2 deeps on the bottom, it seems to me it makes them want to swarm before moving up. A single deep on the bottom with supers above works much better in my experience in my location. Getting them into double deeps may be ok for over wintering, but I myself don't and would not run them that way during the season for honey. In the spring, once they had both deeps being used, I would split them and then run supers up from the single deeps on the bottom. But this may not apply to you. I'm not in Ohio. I don't know your flows. I don't know your weather patterns. I don't know any other number of variables that are going to be different from where I am. I suggest you get info from someone that runs double deeps during the season, I myself am not the one to ask for this question. So sorry, hopefully someone else responds.