- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 336
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Bracknell. UK
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 16 spread across 4 apiaries
Okay I need some advice...
My single colony is a captured cast, captured at the beginning of July. At that point I had 1 drawn super (10 frames old comb) and 10 brand new undrawn brood frames.
They were initially slow to draw any of the comb, and as pretty much all sources of nectar around us vanished in the 2nd week of August I've been feeding since ( 2L 1:1 per week), which has kept them going, and with a lot of effort I'd managed to get them to draw 6 frames of the brood by the 31st August when I did an inspection and added the first try of Apiguard. At this point they had 2 frames of stores in the super (1 capped) and 1 frame uncapped in the brood box. There were 2.5 frames capped brood in the super and 2.5 frames in the brood box.
Due to time constraints the second tray went in on the 11th September - not quite 14 days I know. I didn't do a full inspection at this point as I moved them from a solid to a varroa floor (with the insert in), and the weather wasn't that great. Since I started the Apiguard they've had 2L 1:1 on the 31st and the 11th, and 2L 2:1 on the 18th and 24th(yesterday)
Very close to me, there is a massive amount of ivy that has just come into flower and they're bringing in pollen, and I assume nectar, by the bucket load.
I could really do with checking to see how much room they've got. Is it advisable to do an inspection tomorrow? The next time I could do it would be next Friday afternoon.
As an ancillary question if they are short of space, and I add a frame or 2 of undrawn comb (all I have available) will they draw it and use it?
My single colony is a captured cast, captured at the beginning of July. At that point I had 1 drawn super (10 frames old comb) and 10 brand new undrawn brood frames.
They were initially slow to draw any of the comb, and as pretty much all sources of nectar around us vanished in the 2nd week of August I've been feeding since ( 2L 1:1 per week), which has kept them going, and with a lot of effort I'd managed to get them to draw 6 frames of the brood by the 31st August when I did an inspection and added the first try of Apiguard. At this point they had 2 frames of stores in the super (1 capped) and 1 frame uncapped in the brood box. There were 2.5 frames capped brood in the super and 2.5 frames in the brood box.
Due to time constraints the second tray went in on the 11th September - not quite 14 days I know. I didn't do a full inspection at this point as I moved them from a solid to a varroa floor (with the insert in), and the weather wasn't that great. Since I started the Apiguard they've had 2L 1:1 on the 31st and the 11th, and 2L 2:1 on the 18th and 24th(yesterday)
Very close to me, there is a massive amount of ivy that has just come into flower and they're bringing in pollen, and I assume nectar, by the bucket load.
I could really do with checking to see how much room they've got. Is it advisable to do an inspection tomorrow? The next time I could do it would be next Friday afternoon.
As an ancillary question if they are short of space, and I add a frame or 2 of undrawn comb (all I have available) will they draw it and use it?