mandabow
House Bee
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2011
- Messages
- 126
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Southampton & Rugby
- Hive Type
- Beehaus
- Number of Hives
- 4 eeep! keep needing to AS.. 2 with virgin Qs tho'
i've seen it on here that you should not feed for 3 days so that they use up the honey they ate before leaving to swarm to cut down disease risk.
i was always told to feed and mark down the rate at which they take the syrup (a bit thicker than 1:1, but i think that was that was more to do with the size of hole in home made contact feeder where 1:1 dripped into hive too much) and stop feeding when they are drawing down a lot less then they are at the start... as this shows they are running low on space to put it, or have become self sufficient or have stopped building comb at such a high rate.. if you draw graph of day vs volume you can see it curve down, then you stop.
the basis for this from what i understand is that the swarming bees are not the old hives forragers, the forragers stayed behind with the new borns (who couldnt fly at all) to take over internal duties as best they can (because they were already imprinted with where they live so if swarm found home only a mile away would have issues with going home).
so the swarm bees are at the cusp between being comb builders and forragers, or therabouts age wise.. getting the most wax out of the before some mature into forragers, and encouraging them to stay young so that it's easire to regress to being nurse bees. also feeding keeps more bees in the hive. if their only option is (even a plentiful) honey flow then they leave the hive to get it. less time building for the queen to lay, more risk of dieing in the outside world, more chance of dying altogether ( bees live all winter inside eating honey.. bees die in 40 days in summer forraging _ ok i know poor analogy as winter bees are actually a bit different made to summer bees, but none the less they don't get tattered wings or eaten by birds/ swatted by people etc if they are in the hive)
the more bees you have alive when the queen has fattened up and is able to lay the better, both for keeping brood at the right temperature, tending to it's needs (and her's) and protecting the hive from waxmoth attracted by the smell of brood comb. the younger the bees are (developmentally ie not forragers) the easier it is for them to take on the roles normally carried out by the nurse bees.
if it's a mahooosive swarm it's a lot less necessary to feed as there will likely be enough bees about by the time queenie is in full swing regardles sof if you feed or not.. but not feeding does reduce no of forragers deaths.. so it means once the brood is up and running more honey can be collected while still maintainging brood.
if they are not so big i would feed - unless you have a colony nearby you can provide extra frames of capped brood in from to boster numbers then its a lot less hassle to plonk in a feeder at the start (but after the aformentioned 3 days) and leave them a few days knowing it probably ran out ages ago but gave them a boost, then put in capped brood in if they need a pick me up later.
its a long wait between first eggs being laid and comming through of the new bees and temps need to be maintained
i was always told to feed and mark down the rate at which they take the syrup (a bit thicker than 1:1, but i think that was that was more to do with the size of hole in home made contact feeder where 1:1 dripped into hive too much) and stop feeding when they are drawing down a lot less then they are at the start... as this shows they are running low on space to put it, or have become self sufficient or have stopped building comb at such a high rate.. if you draw graph of day vs volume you can see it curve down, then you stop.
the basis for this from what i understand is that the swarming bees are not the old hives forragers, the forragers stayed behind with the new borns (who couldnt fly at all) to take over internal duties as best they can (because they were already imprinted with where they live so if swarm found home only a mile away would have issues with going home).
so the swarm bees are at the cusp between being comb builders and forragers, or therabouts age wise.. getting the most wax out of the before some mature into forragers, and encouraging them to stay young so that it's easire to regress to being nurse bees. also feeding keeps more bees in the hive. if their only option is (even a plentiful) honey flow then they leave the hive to get it. less time building for the queen to lay, more risk of dieing in the outside world, more chance of dying altogether ( bees live all winter inside eating honey.. bees die in 40 days in summer forraging _ ok i know poor analogy as winter bees are actually a bit different made to summer bees, but none the less they don't get tattered wings or eaten by birds/ swatted by people etc if they are in the hive)
the more bees you have alive when the queen has fattened up and is able to lay the better, both for keeping brood at the right temperature, tending to it's needs (and her's) and protecting the hive from waxmoth attracted by the smell of brood comb. the younger the bees are (developmentally ie not forragers) the easier it is for them to take on the roles normally carried out by the nurse bees.
if it's a mahooosive swarm it's a lot less necessary to feed as there will likely be enough bees about by the time queenie is in full swing regardles sof if you feed or not.. but not feeding does reduce no of forragers deaths.. so it means once the brood is up and running more honey can be collected while still maintainging brood.
if they are not so big i would feed - unless you have a colony nearby you can provide extra frames of capped brood in from to boster numbers then its a lot less hassle to plonk in a feeder at the start (but after the aformentioned 3 days) and leave them a few days knowing it probably ran out ages ago but gave them a boost, then put in capped brood in if they need a pick me up later.
its a long wait between first eggs being laid and comming through of the new bees and temps need to be maintained
