Bees using stores at an alarning rate

[SWEET]

Too much feed can be a very bad thing when spring build up arrives - you want your colonies to have enough stores but room for the queen to lay when she gets going.

Remove a few frames and replace with foundation or drawn comb, stash the stores for nuc's or emergency feed?

 

[Millet]

Remove a few frames and replace with foundation or drawn comb, stash the stores for nuc's or emergency feed?

Good to see someone who thinks outside the box.. and applies a bit of common sense..

 

[pargyle]

Remove a few frames and replace with foundation or drawn comb, stash the stores for nuc's or emergency feed?

Yes - of course that is the correct course of action if you have a hive stuffed full of stores come the point when spring build up commences - but for newish beekeepers I think that this is also a difficult call. Down here in the south with well insulated poly hives and warmish start to the year a colony can start to build long before the traditional 'when you can inspect in a t-shirt' point arrives. The nett result ... loads of stores in the hive and insufficient room to lay you have a recipe for early swarming ... and a bigger problem for a newbie.

Most newbies will be close to their hives and weighing/hefting is not invasive ... early inspections and swapping frames in and out of the hive is invasive at a time when newbies may be reluctant to crack the crownboard. I still maintain that bees should be fed as and when they need it and not just because they might need it. Get into good habits early in your beekeeping rsther than the unthinking option...

They will both work but what is the better practice ?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Some bees (Italians) have a reputation for having a large brood nest in winter so they need a lot of food. I would definitley not breed from a colony that munched through all it's stores when others were fine with less fuel consumption. It's one of the selection criteria (of many).
This year I seemed to have to feed a lot of syrup to my colonies to get them ready from winter, so if that's the same in other parts of the country, then colonies may be light be spring.

It can also be possible to mis-judge the hefting - so scales are less subjective.

 

[Poly Hive]

Best practice?

Ensuring your bees survive. Alive bees will surmount most issues.

Dead bees will not.

It's that simple.

Generalising from the particular is not that helpful.

PH

 

[pargyle]

Best practice?


Generalising from the particular is not that helpful.

PH

Precisely where I started out ....