bees not taking syrup

[darren64]

The bees in both my hives haven't taken any sugar syrup down,the feeders have been on for 2 weeks,I have tried trickling syrup down the middle and putting honey down as well but they just took the honey and that was it,anyone got any other ideas?

 

[susbees]

How heavy are the hives? Are they bringing in Ivy?

 

[bee82]

Check if you have queen

 

[mazzamazda]

My bees wouldn't take feed from a rapid feeder however taken lots from an entrance feeder, i love entrance feeders, taking in lots of ivy pollen too.

Mark

 

[biglongdarren]

i have one hive that is not taking any either and i tried both rapid and contact feeders,they are light and the next good day i get i will look to see if they have a queen....if there was too little bees in too big a hive could this stop them taking down syrup?
Darren.

 

[Midland Beek]

As per a previous post, are your colonies queenright?

 

[GregoryRobbins]

I have ten colonies which have all been fed with sugar solution with emulsified thymol mixture. It has to be said that although the feed is identical in all cases some have been quite slow in taking it down and others have been downright greedy. One hive has not taken any down at all and although they investigate if a little is dribbled down the feeder's central access hole this hasn't been followed by intrest in the feeder. It is queen right and the colony has brood. There is a flow on with ivy which affects all the hives and they are all very active. They all kicked out their drones yesterday afternoon.
Like three other hives which are accepting the feed it has Apiguard in place and an eke. My hypothesis is that the Apiguard is too close to the hole in the crown board and either it is partially obstructing or the smell is putting them off. Alternatively there may be insufficient space within the vicinity of the main brood. I will be checking tomorrow. I will be interested in what turns out to be your reason.

 

[Arfermo]

The bees in both my hives haven't taken any sugar syrup down,the feeders have been on for 2 weeks,I have tried trickling syrup down the middle and putting honey down as well but they just took the honey and that was it,anyone got any other ideas?

If you are using the normal type rapid feeders on top of the crownboard, have you checked to see if the bees have proper access? Not as silly an answer as you may think if the RR has a central hole which isn't large enough !!!

 

[GregoryRobbins]

On inspection there is still no obvious reason why just one hive isn't taking the syrup.The colony is apparently disease free and active. The feed hole is directly over the brood, there is space, though it might entail wax production, access is clear and they are taking in pollen and nectar. I guess they will get around to it when they can't get out to forrage.

 

[Dewin Dwl]

My bees are too busy foraging. Loads of orange pollen coming in too. Weather quite mild at the moment, all sorts of flowers coming into bloom so not a typical autumn. A mild niggle that we are seeing a false-spring.......autumn swarming anyone??

Put a gallon on each hive last week. Put another gallon on today. Feels quite slow but considering conditions, little wonder.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I have two colonies that have "hivemaker" syrup on. (The others finished some time ago). There's just the remnants and when it's gone the feeders will be off. They are taking it down very slowly - 1/2" a day - it's getting cooler - and you're further north than me.

darren, is the syrup fermenting? (Taste/smell it).

 

[darren64]

As per a previous post, are your colonies queenright?

both my colonies had queens on the 30 sept
but I haven't checked since then

 

[Chris B]

One thing you can do to facilitate very rapid feeding is take away the barrier that stops the bees drowning, but spread straw over the syrup to act as a raft. But as mentioned by others, having a queenright colony is a prerequisite for feeding success.

 

[RoseCottage]

Chris, Rab, et al,
can you take a moment to explain why being queenright is important for Autumn feeding? I apologise if my brain has stopped and slipped into neutral...

I have 6 colonies currently and at least one was q- minus at the time I put on my last feed. That colony has taken all its syrup whilst a definate q+ is playing fast and loose with my generosity...


All the best,
Sam

 

[Chris B]

Hi Sam,
I'm not doing broodnest inspections at feeding time, but 99 times out of 100, if I find bees aren't taking feed there is a queen problem when I take a look. Now we need to make sure we aren't talking cross purposes. "Queenright" to me means a colony has a viable queen, not just any queen. Queen problems usually turn out to be a dud queen rather than no queen.
Your q- colony - maybe it just has an off-lay fertile queen. It happens.
Your q+ colony maybe has a problem starting to manifest.
Or maybe bees just don't always behave how we expect - that happens too.

 

[oliver90owner]

RC,

Chris, Rab, et al,

Can't be included in this one. I'm not in the same league as some of these bee farmers so I don't get this sort of thing happening to me - certainly not often enough to take much notice!

Signs are one thing, rules are another. I'm not sure that I would go so far as Chris and say being queenright is a prerequisite for feeding success, but he has seen it a lot of times more than me...99% is OK for a rule where bees are concerned. His second post (#15) seems to indicate he means the cart before the horse and not necessarily what he said in post #13.

A bit like taking in pollen in the spring is said to be a good sign of a laying queen. If they are not, I definitely take it as a bad sign, but don't rely on it absolutely, if they are taking in pollen. This one seems to be the same - effect and cause, not cause and effect, if you see what I mean.

Regards, RAB

 

[Chris B]

Thanks RAB, you are right with your cart/horse analogy and "prerequisite" does sound strong on reflection. What I definitely didn't intend to imply was that anyone should make sure bees are queenright before feeding, but simply that bees with a queen problem usually won't take a feed. And I find it useful to use this as an indicator of queen problems. It's actually been quite a bad season for dud queens.
Chris

 

[Vergilius]

The other option is that your box is absolutely full to bursting with stores, so there is no room for the feed to be stored...


Ben P

 

[RoseCottage]

Chris, Rab, et al,

Thank you for your reasoning I found it very interesting - I hope to pick out such subtleties in colony behaviours in the future.

Rab I understand your self qualification but in mine, and many other people's book, your explanations are usually very valuable (help some of us to identify the key points).

Another little bit of information learned (not sure how useful it will be this time of year mind),

All the best,
Sam

 

[iand]

Hi Sam,
I'm not doing broodnest inspections at feeding time, but 99 times out of 100, if I find bees aren't taking feed there is a queen problem when I take a look. Now we need to make sure we aren't talking cross purposes. "Queenright" to me means a colony has a viable queen, not just any queen. Queen problems usually turn out to be a dud queen rather than no queen.
Your q- colony - maybe it just has an off-lay fertile queen. It happens.
Your q+ colony maybe has a problem starting to manifest.
Or maybe bees just don't always behave how we expect - that happens too.

Hi
This hive weight thing can mean different things at different times. Earlier in the season a heavy colony with plenty of stores usually turns out not to have a laying Q, maybe waiting for virgin whatever( brood being lighter etc etc & so a better proposition). Now a light stock to me at this time, usually has a steady no of bees not roaring or noticably dwindling, means ah ha bet this won't make it through winter. We had one like this on a site of 40, it just would not take extra syrup or even fondant later, no apparent reason seemingly determined to fail. Seen a few others in the years since where with that great thing hind sight. I could have told you in spring "I knew that that was going to fail". At this time of the season when Q's may well be having a rest from laying, then ripping the colony open may well not tell you anything. So don't bother with them now, I make a mental note not to put them in my colony count. Let them live their lives and watch this space!

Ian