is this a problem or something I should be worried about

PurleyRoyal · Jul 30, 2017

Newbies - had bees since May 2017.

We have just completed an inspection this afternoon of our two hives and one nuc.

One of the hive brood boxes and the Nuc in were very much as expected - frames with honey stores, pollen and brood in various stages. Just as all the books describe.

The brood box in the other hive has lots of bees, brood at various stages and pollen stores but no honey stores. Since our last inspection it would appear they have either eaten the honey or moved it up into the super, which contains lots of honey. The space previously occupied by the honey stores is now being used for brood?

Is this a problem or something I should be worried about?

B+. · Jul 30, 2017

PurleyRoyal said:
Is this a problem or something I should be worried about?

As the bees ripen (reduce the moisture content to around 18%) nectar, they will move it above the brood nest and seal it as winter stores. This is perfectly normal. Indeed, beekeepers rely on this behavior so they can take surplus honey as a harvest.
It sounds like your colonies are doing ok at the moment, but, be aware that you should only take surplus honey so don't be tempted to take what little they have. They will need it as winter stores. If the nectar flow has stopped there (as it has here) they may even need it as food for now.

PurleyRoyal · Jul 30, 2017

B+. said:
As the bees ripen (reduce the moisture content to around 18%) nectar, they will move it above the brood nest and seal it as winter stores. This is perfectly normal. Indeed, beekeepers rely on this behavior so they can take surplus honey as a harvest.
It sounds like your colonies are doing ok at the moment, but, be aware that you should only take surplus honey so don't be tempted to take what little they have. They will need it as winter stores. If the nectar flow has stopped there (as it has here) they may even need it as food for now.

Thank you for that.

Honey stores for all three colonies over the last week or so have not increased. We are putting this down to indifferent weather combined with a reduced flow. Lots of activity to stand still.

We are not anticipating any harvest this year just hoping the bees can winter well and get off to a good start in the spring 2018!

Millet · Jul 30, 2017

PurleyRoyal said:
Thank you for that.

Honey stores for all three colonies over the last week or so have not increased. We are putting this down to indifferent weather combined with a reduced flow. Lots of activity to stand still.

We are not anticipating any harvest this year just hoping the bees can winter well and get off to a good start in the spring 2018!

I am having the same problem here with two Nucs both are 56 mile apart one was getting robbed and the other was not, even the one that was not getting robbed had no stores, i have been putting frames of honey in to compensate but i ran out of frames several days ago so i switched to feeding my own jarred honey back to the Nuc's aswell as sugar syrup which i do not like to do through having wasp problems, one Nuc is Queen - and the other has a Queen that has stopped laying through lack of stores so hopefully the feed will kick start her of again with the help of uniting the two nucs together.