Build up. Do I intervene or not?

[psafloyd]

Did first inspection of the year yesterday and as out of practice, didn't answer all the questions I should have.

However, very strong looking over six (?) frames and I saw plenty of selaed brood and some stores. They still have a small amount of fondant left, but I wondered if I should assist build up, as it is fairly cramped in there as there were only eight or nine frames in there, two of which were largely undrawn. I added a couple more, but that means there is a lot of space but with a need to draw the comb to fill it.

So, should I be feeding a 1:1 sugar solution to encourage drawing out of the comb?

And should I use a frame feeder or a large Miller or overhead type?

Any advice gratefully received.

Meant to say that having checked the varroa board, I only had two for the past two weeks, so the OA worked but they're obviously all in the brood.

 

[Poly Hive]

The critical bit of info is how many patches of brood on how many frames.

They may look strong on a bonny day but on a cool night it is a very different story.

I don't even bother to count seams of bees as they are academic really, what I write on the cards is the amount of brood.

PH

 

[Tom Bick]

Floyd it sounds to me from your description that your bees are reasonably balanced and my advice is to just let them get on with it as it stands with no intervention at this time.

They will drawer comb when they need it you should have plenty of pollen around you now and early blossom may give the bees an increase in stores

I understand that the next two weeks are going to be warm in the south east so your Essex girls will be putting the fake tan away and topping up on the real tan lol.

 

[Midland Beek]

It is perhaps too chilly for bees to be drawing comb easily, so it is maybe wrong to think that if you feed you will end up with drawn comb. I would be inclined not to force the situation.

But make sure your bees do not starve at this time of the year.

 

[psafloyd]

Thanks all. All sound advice and I will leave them to carry on as they are as they are bringing home lots of pollen at the moment.

I really wondered if HM fills up the front frames completely swarming cold be prompted if the rest was all undrawn and they cold not be bothered to draw it out/conditions had not been right for them to draw it out.

Looking forward to some warmth and inspections and also starting the Capital Bee course on April 07. I may start a thread on that and provide updates if people are interested in finding out what is covered. Or perhaps that wold be a sensible use of a blog?

Thanks again.

 

[Poly Hive]

Bees are NOT going to swarm at this time of year. As already mentioned too cold to draw out comb, they are taking all their time to keep the brood warm as it is.

PH

 

[Tom Bick]

Looking forward to some warmth and inspections and also starting the Capital Bee course on April 07. I may start a thread on that and provide updates if people are interested in finding out what is covered. Or perhaps that wold be a sensible use of a blog?

Thanks again.

Yes I will be interested in this floyd either way blog or thread.

Also I know of a couple of community groups that had been turned down one of them you could not get more community based, I think the main problem it was on an existing allotment plot and it looked as though they wanted community groups taking over waste land?