Saturday, August 16, 2008

Help! Query from a beginning West River Valley beekeeper

I received this query today in an e-mail message from a friend. Please respond: any helpful comments will be appreciated.

"...since everyone is talking about harvesting honey we went into the top super to see if there was any honey. A week or so ago there seemed to be a lot of bees in that super, but today although there were a lot of bees there is NO comb. I have been feeding and they are eating the sugar water very quickly. Would you assume that our hive is having trouble maintaining like what we hear of others? Our plan at this point is to feed and leave everything for the bees to have this winter. Tell me what you think?

A little discouraging. We didn't venture to the broods........."

4 comments:

WOWOTE said...

Do you have an excluder beneath your top super? I've heard excluders are not always well-liked by the bees. Make sure you have an opening, maybe just a ventilation hole, that can be used as an entrance directly into the top super from the outside by the workers. Maybe you should try removing the excluder and see if the bees start building comb. ?????
Any other ideas, anyone?

Anonymous said...

I was wondering , how many brood boxes do you have and what size are they (deep or medium)?
Yes , I think you should definitely feed like you're doing, and leave everything for the bees to winter on.

I notice the Japanese Knot weed is beginning to bloom in the parking lot of Rick's Tavern,...always a good flow in that stand each year. The bees will be loving it!

Seth Anderson said...

There's is a book that takes on an easy step-by-step approach to beekeeping. Detailed photographs illustrate how you can install the bees into your hive, how to assemble the hive, how to harvest honey, and many more. Though the book explains beekeeping in a very basic manner, as expected from a Dummies guidebook, it covers a very wide range of topics that also include information about the bees from their biological structure to their behavior as a society.

Agriculture said...

Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made hives, by humans. Most such bees are queen honey bee in the genus Apis, but other honey-producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept.

Visiting Plum Blossoms 5/08

Visiting Plum Blossoms 5/08
Photo: Coyotewoman, Newfane Hill, VT
SPACER
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