Fair warning

[enrico]

Just a word of caution, hefted a hive yesterday.. Very light, added a super of uncapped honey, near starvation level, contacted a few other beekeepers in my area, one lost one to starvation, one checked and very close! This cold weather ( 4 degrees over night) and high numbers of bees still in hive is meaning they are eating stores quickly. A quick heft won't go amiss!
E

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

Mine are on brood and a half, with the half brood at the top.

The upper parts at packed full of bees and capped brood, with little in the way of stores. The bottoms are virtually empty of everything!

Ambrosia on and disappearing with a vengeance!!

 

[user 3509]

We have been feeding for a couple of weeks now as autumn seems to have come very early to this part of the U.K. And there is next to no forage around. Did a check on Friday and the hives are full of bees and they are taking the feeds down very quickly.

 

[Tremyfro]

Just a word of caution, hefted a hive yesterday.. Very light, added a super of uncapped honey, near starvation level, contacted a few other beekeepers in my area, one lost one to starvation, one checked and very close! This cold weather ( 4 degrees over night) and high numbers of bees still in hive is meaning they are eating stores quickly. A quick heft won't go amiss!
E

You are absolutely right. I lifted my nuc last week and it was as light as a feather. Only a little stores left. Even tho they had been out foraging every chance they could. We gave them a quart of Invertbee...which disappeared within a few days and are now munching through a chunk of homemade fondant. I am checking our 2 colonies today...so will be interested to see how much they have in there. When you look in the top of the hive...loads of bees. The weather here has been changeable with rain and windy. They have been out foraging even in the rain and when the sun comes out the hives have been very busy.

 

[user 6228]

Another word of caution look and observe...
Here we have gone from bees close to needing feeding to them tucking large amounts away in a few days. But that because: there is heather near, its been wet and now its warm and it looks as thogh the heather is going to stay in flower for quite a while yet here

 

[Ben90]

Couple of my hives seemed to be going through their stores quickly (lots of uncapped honey cells), was going to put on some feed, but when I next checked them they were bringing in lots of new nectar and pollen. Seems to have hit an ivy flow here.

 

[itma]

August was the problem here.
LOTS of Ivy coming in now, with a very distinctive smell round the hives …

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just before the 'cold snap' had a young hive at carreg apiary with a super on for space - when I checked they had almost filled it, I had planned to go up a few days later with a second super but work and weather got in the way. went up a week ago with spare supers fearing the worse - super was almost empty again and another hive was getting a bit light.....However Over the last week had hives at home and at the association apiary with the bottom super rather empty. Checked this weekend and they are almost full again! I reckon if i could have waited another week before harvesting I could have been looking at over a hundred pounds extra.
So yes - constant vigilance needed at the moment -

NO NEED TO OPEN UP AND INSPECT THOUGH!​

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, enrico, I agree. I posted earlier that I found one colony with absolutely NO stores. A week earlier I had taken a capped super off it and in the brood box there were two outside frames of pollen and nectar and nice honey arcs over the brood. Balsam is out and all hives appear busy on it. I had hefted it that morning and was concerned so I had a look in. Queen had stopped laying and they were on the edge I reckon, though still foraging like mad. They went through 2 Litres of syrup in 12 hours and I gave them 2 frames of pollen and nectar from my supply in the freezer.

 

[Swarm]

Removed supers today, August took its toll on them. The plus side is all colonies have stores.

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes good advice things can change rapidly at this time of year especially if the bees have recently lost their honey stores.

 

[REDWOOD]

The moral of the story is never take your eye off the ball.