Bees moving stores

[Blue Spinnaker]

i'm sorry in advance if this is a stupid question.....

When I put a super on, will the bees move any surplus stores into it, and if so, how will I know if it's leftover sugar from the winter?

 

[oliver90owner]

You will know whether you fed sugar last autumn. If you did (as I expect you have) it could be moved into the supers. Simple way is not to leave large amounts of surplus stores in the brood box. Just a simple organisational/operational function.

 

[gavin]

Not a stupid question, especially as many beekeepers seem to have been feeding their bees until they can't take any more.

They most certainly will shift sugar stores up as the brood expands. People who have used dyed syrup see this clearly. The aim should be to get enough into the colony in autumn to see them through the winter, and maybe give them fondant on top in years when they have used their stores up early. But at this time of year you really want them to have used up most of their stores ready to fill the space with proper goodies.

Take out brood frames of stores and replace with foundation if you have more than maybe two frames of them at the moment. If you have rape coming out and a brood box nearly full I'd reduce to one. Use them later.

 

[FreeFall]

People who have used dyed syrup see this clearly.

What a great idea - I never thought of that!

 

[Jeff Buzz]

What do you dye it with

 

[Poly Hive]

Hang on....

Gavin is talking about (I think) dyed sugar that was supplied to beekeepers in WW2 and because it was dyed it became obvious to the craft just how much was moved around.

Far better to get the bees to eat it.

Saves getting dye in your honey...... please take a minute to think these things through.

PH

 

[FreeFall]

Saves getting dye in your honey

PH

You wouldn't want to extract any frame that had dyed honey in would you? As they would contain sugar syrup and not foraged nectar. Unfortunately I wasn't around in WW II, let alone keeping bees.