how long should I feed.

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islayhawk

House Bee
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
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Location
isle of islay
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This is my first year of Beekeeping and I had to perform an AS. How long should I feed with syrup for. Performed the AS on the 1st July and I am feeding a 1:1 syrup. If I have to give the hive a honey super it will be with undrawn foundation. I obviously wont be taking Honey off it this year so I want to ensure they go into the Winter with enough stores.
 
Who told you that they need feeding?
 
I think I'll start selling syrup on ebay..
 
This an extract from 'Beeworld - The Artificial swarm'

Hive A (the hive full of brood on the new site) will initially have very few foraging bees but has a lot of brood to feed. This means that Hive A may need feeding with sugar syrup to help it through the first few weeks. As the house bees mature and start to forage they will start to bring in stores as long as there is a reasonable nectar flow.
 
I think I'll start selling syrup on ebay..

No ... a CD with instructions how not to make it, how not to feed it to the bees, when not to feed it to the bees and 50 different designs for home made feeders ... 10 gallon ones ... cram all this on - price it at £1.99 - sit back and wait for the orders.

Of course, as all the advice on the CD is carp and with a bit of luck they will ignore it and the result will be better beekeepers and healthier bees !!

Pointless giving good advice as it seems to fall on some deaf ears ... Present OP excluded of course !
 
This an extract from 'Beeworld - The Artificial swarm'

Hive A (the hive full of brood on the new site) will initially have very few foraging bees but has a lot of brood to feed. This means that Hive A may need feeding with sugar syrup to help it through the first few weeks. As the house bees mature and start to forage they will start to bring in stores as long as there is a reasonable nectar flow.

Did you not give them some stores to live on whilst they go and collect some more?
 
It appears that lightning does strike twice in the one place. Earlier this evening I read a post where a beginner was getting slagged off by experienced beekeepers for asking a question. Instead of offering advice his question was ridiculed. It appears that maybe I shouldn't have asked a question where the answer is so obvious to experienced beekeepers. It would be so much more pleasant to be in the forum if the first replies were not attacks - but advice
 
It appears that lightning does strike twice in the one place. Earlier this evening I read a post where a beginner was getting slagged off by experienced beekeepers for asking a question. Instead of offering advice his question was ridiculed. It appears that maybe I shouldn't have asked a question where the answer is so obvious to experienced beekeepers. It would be so much more pleasant to be in the forum if the first replies were not attacks - but advice

Not an attack ... more an observation ... we have seen so many posts about inappropriate feeding in recent weeks - if you care to read the posts in the link I posted (from last week) you will probably be able to make your own mind up. Nobody on here is slagging anyone off ... but, a quick blast on the 'Search' button before starting another thread on the same topic may attract less attention from those who have offered buckets full of advice about exactly the same situation for several weeks on several threads.....
 
Then that would have been the advice - the link to the post - . Instead of a verbal attack by what I thought would have been understanding experienced beekeepers.
 
I too am a beginner with lots of questions but I am thinking twice about asking. Not a very friendly forum
 
This an extract from 'Beeworld - The Artificial swarm'

Hive A (the hive full of brood on the new site) will initially have very few foraging bees but has a lot of brood to feed. This means that Hive A may need feeding with sugar syrup .

The operative word is may If this was a very strong colony with 'wall to wall' brood there may be no stores in the brood box so it may be prudent to feed a few pints of syrup. In a few days time, with no new brood to tend and brood constantly emerging they then should be able to fend for themselves.
I too am a beginner with lots of questions but I am thinking twice about asking. Not a very friendly forum

Hmmm, not being paranoid or anything but is this another alter ego
or is it me being over sensitive as we seem to be collecting a lot of trolls at the moment?
 
I too am a beginner with lots of questions but I am thinking twice about asking. Not a very friendly forum


Probably best to start and read the back catalogue of the beginners forum to start with before offering comment on how friendly this forum is ... I'm a relatively new beekeeper and I've found that the quality, quantity and instant nature of advice offered is second to no other beekeeping forum.

If you do some research (or even do as I did ... just hit the forum search button for a single word search 'feeding') then ask a qualified, informed and detailed question, rather than a very general one, you may get some valuable and highly specific advice which you won't find in a bee book.
 
I would say if the bees have stores, and appear to be bringing in nectar, you don't need to feed them. Depending on forage in your specific area it is unlikely they will need feeding at the moment. If they are light on stores, by all means give them some food, it certainly won't kill them. If there's plenty of forage around they may not take it - still no harm done. Keep a close eye in the next few weeks the flow will start drying up and some small colonies/nucs may need support. Hope this helps.
 
This is my first year of Beekeeping and I had to perform an AS. How long should I feed with syrup for. Performed the AS on the 1st July and I am feeding a 1:1 syrup. If I have to give the hive a honey super it will be with undrawn foundation. I obviously wont be taking Honey off it this year so I want to ensure they go into the Winter with enough stores.

This an extract from 'Beeworld - The Artificial swarm'

Hive A (the hive full of brood on the new site) will initially have very few foraging bees but has a lot of brood to feed. This means that Hive A may need feeding with sugar syrup to help it through the first few weeks. As the house bees mature and start to forage they will start to bring in stores as long as there is a reasonable nectar flow.

so when you did the AS, was no stores put into the hive that your feeding?

whether you did or didn't, do you see them bringing in pollen??

have they built any new comb??

if yes to both those questions, then no is my answer
 
This is my first year of Beekeeping and I had to perform an AS. How long should I feed with syrup for. Performed the AS on the 1st July and I am feeding a 1:1 syrup. If I have to give the hive a honey super it will be with undrawn foundation. I obviously wont be taking Honey off it this year so I want to ensure they go into the Winter with enough stores.

When you looked through the original colony to find the queen and perform your AS you would have seen the stores situation. If there were honey arcs on all the frames and a couple of stores then that's enough. The supers go on the queen and she has all the foragers so you can forget about that box.
If I have two supers on I sometimes give the AS a new one and take the lightest to give to the parent hive. Sometimes I might feed but then only a rapid feeder full and then only if the weather is pants.
 
I too am a beginner with lots of questions but I am thinking twice about asking. Not a very friendly forum

So someone with no hives, joined yesterday, immediately posts criticising others..

And then complains of others being unfriendly..

Hmm..:nono:
 
how long should I feed.

There is no categoric answer to that question.

As long as, and if, necessary. But only if necessary.

Most colonies do not need feeding at all. They never get fed in the wild. Those bees in the wild which do not collect, or do not have, sufficient stores would perish. Genes gone from the pool. Survival of the fittest, etc, etc.

Your reading source is rubbish. There will almost always be a honey arch above the brood. There will be no open brood after about a week, so no more larvae to feed.

So it quoting 'for the next few weeks' is absolute garbage. One week, perhaps - and quite likely not necessary. After one week, there will, again, be adequate foragers to maintain the colony. Read it carefully, too; it also says 'may' need feeding. That most certainly does not mean 'will'.

IF, on the other hand, they decide to swarm while there is no income (as in forage, not any shortage of bees), and stores are insufficient to last until the next inspection, you would then consider feeding. 'Consideration'would take into account not only the current level of stores but also the weather and flow conditions. If it warm and dry and there is plenty of forage, you would not feed unless very low on stores. Application of common sense, really. You are the beekeeper and bees do not read books.

Autumn feeding is entirely a different matter. We are, as yet, nowhere near autumn.

a). People should read everything carefully, and b). Those that give out information should get it right.

There are too many that don't read properly/carefully, and also don't think of actually checking out if what is printed, or said, actually makes sense.
 
It appears that lightning does strike twice in the one place. Earlier this evening I read a post where a beginner was getting slagged off by experienced beekeepers for asking a question. Instead of offering advice his question was ridiculed. It appears that maybe I shouldn't have asked a question where the answer is so obvious to experienced beekeepers. It would be so much more pleasant to be in the forum if the first replies were not attacks - but advice

Nobody slagged you off.
You were asked:-
a; who told you they needed feeding?

b; Did you not give them some stores to live on whilst they go and collect some more?
 

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