best feed?

[pargyle]

Thats the problem when someone asks a question about feeding, people start to give another beekeeper a hard time saying, my dont need feeding, not round here, but not everywhere and every hive is the same why cant you just answer the question, you can tell me dont talk rubbish but some do need feeding, i will let you think about the rest of the answer.

I don't think anyone was giving anybody a hard time on this thread ? The answers that came back to a very vague post were all constructive and helpful ... following the second post which provided more information even more so ...

 

[Finman]

Thats the problem when someone asks a question about feeding, people start to give another beekeeper a hard time saying, my dont need feeding, not round here, but not everywhere and every hive is the same why cant you just answer the question, you can tell me dont talk rubbish but some do need feeding, i will let you think about the rest of the answer.

Question is wrong. So simple. This forum is not military army, where even madd question are good questions.


.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I don't think anyone was giving anybody a hard time on this thread ? The answers that came back to a very vague post were all constructive and helpful ... following the second post which provided more information even more so ...

Question is wrong. So simple. This forum is not military army, where even madd question are good questions.


.

On the other hand.......................

 

[itma]

"The waggle dance analysis by LASI (Sussex Uni) showed that...."

they also had at least one bee foraging out at sea!!! (presumably not good at counting it's own waggles).

Direction is simple (they include a clock/calendar and a reference vertical plumb line in the field of view of the recording camera).

Distance is more complicated.
Bees are measuring distance by "optical flow" - which I simplistically think of as the number of visual 'clicks'. And the clicks per kilometre varies with the visual texture of the ground beneath. In the extreme case, featureless terrain (like a lake) has no real visual texture, and wildly fewer clicks per km.
Dr Couvillon at LASI 'calibrated' her bees waggles to kilometres and came up with a slightly different factor (or rather calibration curve) to the classic derived by von Frisch.
However, she then applied this same waggle/distance calibration to flights in all directions -- whether over fields of OSR or over suburban gardens.
I feel sure that the differing textures in different directions are bound to result in some errors in distance measurement.
However, as to whether the bees were flying North (into the countryside) or South (into town), I have great confidence in her findings.

They now have three years of data, and it shows many consistent themes.
I am however disappointed at their readiness to generalise from what is essentially a single geographical setting.

 

[itma]

wow, well that was fast. a little more detail i've just got two nucs and put one into a brood box and left one in a poly nuc. i'm feeding both because theres plenty of foundation to be drawn out in the brood box and the poly nuc is weaker and id like to build them up for the winter. i'm wondering if i should move the slightly weaker one into a brood or not? i'm feeding because i'd rather feed and have a colony next year than risk it. thanks

Edward, the two priorities are more bees and more comb.
And you need more comb before you can get more bees.

Stored fuel is NOT a priority, as long as they have enough to tide them over until they can get back on the forage.
Once they have comb to store it in, pre-winter feeding can be completed in a couple of weeks or so.

The risk of over-feeding carbs (syrup) is that they store so much that it cramps the Queen's laying style. In the extreme case, this can push even a small colony into swarming.

 

[kighill]

Feeding

I checked my bees yesterday and found one colony without any food and half of the bees dead.
This was a very strong colony and I removed two supers on my last check and the honey flow was still on in my area then. I cannot say if they had been robbed out or due to the strength of the colony and my removal of the supers simply left them short when the flow stopped.

I immediately gave them a slab of fondant and have given them sugar syrup this morning 1kg to about 625 ml water.

I also found another colony with a very small amount of food so will be giving them a boost before the winter feed which is a good few weeks away for me.

My thoughts are if in doubt feed better to keep the bees alive than lose them because we may think a flow is on when in fact the bees may be scratching a living out with very little nectar about.

 

[Finman]

.
We have discussed many times about syrup feeding in the middle on summer.

Bees get nectar from flowers and draw new combs if they need them. So they do in nature.

If a beekeper feed syrup, first bees fill the present combs and after that they draw new combs.
You tried to get new combs but they wasted present combs and partly filled brood combs.

That is their natural course.


Comb drawings is not any goal in beekeeping. I have not seen a colony which does not draw combs without beekeeper's encouragement.
.

 

[Finman]

I checked my bees yesterday and found one colony without any food and half of the bees dead.
This was a very strong colony and I removed two supers on my last check

lack of food stores is its own thing.

The hive needs allways some stores that it goes over rainy weeks.

If you took 2 supers honey off from the hive and brood box has not honey stores, who can you then blame for?

 

[kighill]

lack of food stores is its own thing.

The hive needs allways some stores that it goes over rainy weeks.

If you took 2 supers honey off from the hive and brood box has not honey stores, who can you then blame for?

I blame myself and fully accept responsibility for my error. I admit my error in the hope that others learn from it.

 

[mbc]

Edward, the two priorities are more bees and more comb.
And you need more comb before you can get more bees.

Stored fuel is NOT a priority, as long as they have enough to tide them over until they can get back on the forage.
Once they have comb to store it in, pre-winter feeding can be completed in a couple of weeks or so.

The risk of over-feeding carbs (syrup) is that they store so much that it cramps the Queen's laying style. In the extreme case, this can push even a small colony into swarming.

Bang on !
Sometimes I think rthe best way to build colonies would be to feed them continuously but to extract any full combs and feed it back to them.