Feeders Question - Bee are making honeycomb in it

[Nbw]

Hi
So for the cold spell we have had i put some fondant in a takeaway pot on the crown board to help the colony. This was 2 weeks ago. Temps are around 10 degrees at the moment and are dropping now until next week. Today I wanted to check the fondant and it looks like the bees have made honeycomb in the takeaway pot....

What is the best course of action here?
Temps look to creep up over 11-12 degrees by monday/tuesday next week. I was going to head out today but temp are below 10.

Thanks

 

[Erichalfbee]

Take it away and shake the bees out at the entrance. Sounds like you are feeding them to excess.
Be prepared to take stores out when you look in. You might not need to but best prepared.
PS can you put your location in your profile. It helps people answering if they know where you are

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

sounds like you've overfed, they're making comb in the pot as they're looking for space to put all the nectar they've been piling in the last few weeks - on top of all the fondant they've probably been storing

 

[Nbw]

Thanks for the replies.

I will update my profile now

Since I may have over feed them, I am yet to put the super frames on so this could be filling the brood frames up. Am I best when it warms up to put a super box and frames in and let them move the fondant/honey up or shall I replace a brood frame which might be full of fondant and not brood?

 

[Amari]

Are you a member BBKA? - recommended if only for the third-party insurance it provides.

Re supers: read "April in the Apiary" p115 in BBKA News delivered today.

No two colonies are the same so the learning experience is enhanced by having two or more colonies.

 

[enrico]

Thanks for the replies.

I will update my profile now

Since I may have over feed them, I am yet to put the super frames on so this could be filling the brood frames up. Am I best when it warms up to put a super box and frames in and let them move the fondant/honey up or shall I replace a brood frame which might be full of fondant and not brood?

You are on a large learning curve and I have some sympathy. You need to get used to hefting your hive, that means lifting the back a couple of cm to see how much it weighs. At the beginning of winter it should be really heavy, this time of the year it should be really light as nectar flows start. The trick is having it light but leaving enough food for them not to starve. It is too easy to just keep feeding and this leads to early swarming, confused bees and sugar in your honey. I am going to presume you have overfed, if your hive is still heavy then that will confirm it so on the next inspection WHEN IT US WARM ENOUGH AND NOT BEFORE you need to have a quick look in and remove a couple of outer frames full of food. Slide be frames that are left towards the outside until you come across brood. At that point but new frames in, drawn if you have them but foundation if you don't. That will give the queen some room to lay. OR if you have a spare box of drawn frames, shallow or deep, put it under the present brood box, they will move the food up and start to lay in the lower box. When a main flow starts and you have frames with nectar in remove the old food frames and freeze for next autumn.
Hope this helps and is clear enough
E

 

[ericbeaumont]

shall I replace a brood frame which might be full of fondant and not brood?

Yes.

To avert the risk of swarming later this spring, space for the queen to lay must not be restricted.

To make sure of this, you may even remove more than one older stores frame, if nectar is coming in.

Add new frames at the edge of the brood nest, not at the end of the box.

A super is no use to the queen, though it will reduce nectar storage in the brood box and give space to park those thousands of young bees.

Super frames: foundation or comb?

 

[Bakerbee]

Hiall, I run commercial and did an inspection before it got chilly again. All my hives on 7 or 8 full frames of brood. I normally go to double brood but then they never fill it with brood fully and put too much honey in brood boxes and not enough in supers. This year I've decided to go brood and a half. So popped a super of drawn below and as the raper in very nearly in full flower one on top, as a super. Fingers crossed its enough room for queen to lay, and not so much for too much honey storage. Let's see if they fill supers properly this year.

 

[pargyle]

Hiall, I run commercial and did an inspection before it got chilly again. All my hives on 7 or 8 full frames of brood. I normally go to double brood but then they never fill it with brood fully and put too much honey in brood boxes and not enough in supers. This year I've decided to go brood and a half. So popped a super of drawn below and as the raper in very nearly in full flower one on top, as a super. Fingers crossed its enough room for queen to lay, and not so much for too much honey storage. Let's see if they fill supers properly this year.

With the cold spell at present - even in sunny Dorset - that amount of space might be a big ask for them ... the rape won't produce nectar when it is this cold - even if it is in full bloom ...so you've given them a big space above the brood which will mean they have to work very hard to cover the existing 7 o 8 frames of brood, Don't be surprised if you see them chucking out dead brood which has been chilled.

 

[Bakerbee]

I'm fairly confident this won't happen. They had already produced large amounts of drones and were very very over crowded, the brood has more than enough bees to accommodate the extra space, your thoughts were weighed up before I did this by myself but my gut told me to add as they were that over crowded. On pulling up all frames not only were the frames heavily covered but each had a couple of inches of heavy lacing hanging under the frames. There's rough bees to deal with the space.