1st inspections

[beeno]

Beeno, this sounds like the old accepted wisdom,as i said I never questioned it myself years ago, but is there any evidence that this will speed up brooding, I cant see any, only really the opposite, or that it makes absolutely no difference, so why do it?

Hi Bob,
Sorry, I did not give you the link to the research paper, but Pbee has given you enough to go into battle with. To me it is quite logical really a bit like having a dishwasher.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Spring... what Spring??

Swallows are here. No Spring.....we've missed it

 

[mbc]

Hi Bob,
Sorry, I did not give you the link to the research paper, but Pbee has given you enough to go into battle with. To me it is quite logical really a bit like having a dishwasher.

1:1 vs 2:1 is a bit like having a dishwasher, the more efficient ones use less water.

 

[richardbees]

protein is likely short this year, the first since

It's the first year I've fed pollen substitute.....

...also, opened my strongest hive this pm that weighed 64 lbs going into winter to find eff all sealed stores left. I took the fondant off and put on rapid feeder with 1:1 syrup. None of my usual local forage. mainly ornamental street trees, has flowered yet

 

[PBee]

As far as I know, UK has not made honey bee researches.
I bet that UK have made not a single research what factors affect on spring build up.

You laughed to me last spring and you have laughed to me this spring that in UK bees get pollen since January.

On average your hives are full of brood. You have feeded them all kind of sugar 3 months. Where is the result?


But if you do not want to learn something you do not learn.

PS: kiwi fruit's pollen nutrition value is zero because pollen does not have cell slime.

Yes, I read about 45 years ago how bees add pollen foraging in red clover. But how in heck you can feed sugar to hives in the middle of summer.
.

I'm on a constant learning curve but you can't learn without questioning.

The increase in pollen collection is not confined to a few specific sources. The mechanism is described as follows from - http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/20100203_2

Feeding sugar syrup to colonies can cause them to rear more brood which then affects the amount of pollen a colony collects. The increase in pollen collection following syrup feeding does not, however, appear to be entirely caused by an increase in brood rearing. Most of the increase in pollen collection that occurs during syrup feeding usually disappears soon after feeding is discontinued, even though brood rearing may increase after this time, suggesting that the increase in pollen collection is not just a response to an increase in the amount of brood.
When colonies are fed syrup inside their hives, the syrup is collected by house bees whose tasks also include accepting nectar loads from foragers. Free reported that most foragers that had been collecting nectar changed to collecting pollen when their colony was fed syrup, whereas few of the nectar foragers from the control colony changed. This was, however, an unreplicated trial. Free concluded that most of the increased pollen collection following feeding was due to bees changing from nectar gatherers to pollen gatherers, rather than new foragers being recruited. According to Free, syrup feeding created a shortage of house bees available to accept nectar loads, so that nectar gatherers had difficulty in getting their loads accepted and changed to collecting pollen.

I am open to the idea of supplementary pollen feeding and have fed about 10 hives ad lib with a 30% pollen/fondant mixture since beginning of February to see what happens. Had a quick look through one of these a few days ago and also a hive with a sister queen which has had no inputs since last autumn. The brood situation was almost identical with both laying well but only started in the last two weeks.

My current thinking is that it is much more important to go into winter with big clusters and queens that lay rapidly when they do start. Early season (slow) syrup feeding for me, when conditions allow, is used to get foundation drawn but the effect of this is that the queens lay out the boxes as they are drawn.

 

[mbc]

I'm on a constant learning curve but you can't learn without questioning.

The increase in pollen collection is not confined to a few specific sources. The mechanism is described as follows from - http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/20100203_2



I am open to the idea of supplementary pollen feeding and have fed about 10 hives ad lib with a 30% pollen/fondant mixture since beginning of February to see what happens. Had a quick look through one of these a few days ago and also a hive with a sister queen which has had no inputs since last autumn. The brood situation was almost identical with both laying well but only started in the last two weeks.

My current thinking is that it is much more important to go into winter with big clusters and queens that lay rapidly when they do start. Early season (slow) syrup feeding for me, when conditions allow, is used to get foundation drawn but the effect of this is that the queens lay out the boxes as they are drawn.

I had it explained to me in simple english as bees liking a balance of protein and carbohydrates, tip the balance in favour of carbohydrates by syrup feeding and they try and redress the balance by collecting more protein/pollen.

 

[oliver90owner]

that weighed 64 lbs going into winter

What weighed that - the complete hive? How much does your bare hive weigh (we will ignore the bees) - roof, coverboard, brood, floor, frames, plus any insulation. Presumably not a stand as well?

Or put it another way, what did it weigh today?

 

[richardbees]

What weighed that?

fair question.....I weigh just the bb with crownboard and floor, which are total approx 10lbs.
My optimum weight going into winter is around 55lbs ,,,,,and I feed intensively with a Rowse-Miller feeder. After 20+ years I've never had a colony die from starvation.

Why would I need to weigh today when I was able to look inside?

 

[beeno]

1:1 vs 2:1 is a bit like having a dishwasher, the more efficient ones use less water.

Hi mbc,
I was thinking more on the lines of spending the time on other things. Water consumption is not an issue in this context, but collecting is for the bees!

 

[oliver90owner]

Why would I need to weigh today when I was able to look inside?

Because you were justifying your previous post by quoting weights without any reference toi the current weight, which means that readers have absolutely no idea of the base-line figure on which yo are depending. For instance a ply box with a deep roof with chip board under a steel cover would weigh rather more than a simple poly box with lightweight OMF and just a thin coverboard. That's why. And further, likely no need to open the hive at all, if the weight was sufficient. What does '64lbs' quoted in solation really mean? Not a lot to me, for a start.

 

[richardbees]

Because you were justifying your previous post by quoting weights without any reference toi the current weight,


what on earth are you going on about, Oliver?

the crownboard, bb and floor will always weigh about 10 lbs !

It's the content of the bb which fluctuates in weight....