Lack of Honey

[ashley hunter]

Hi

Just looking to glean knowledge from the host of wise Beekeepers on this excellent forum

First Year Beekeeper - all going well, first super went on 3rd June - filled out nicely. Disaster struck end of June with change in brood pattern and type, by first week of July ..... Drone laying Queen confirmed. Various fiddling around resulted in re-queening. I wont elude to all the stress and errors that followed - there are a couple of posts everyone helped me with. However by 22 July back on track.

My question - Once issues with queen arose the honey production pretty much ceased. When I removed the super it was pretty much devoid of bees. When super inspected there was probably 6 full frames, 4 half (ish) frames and 4 with negligible quantities - My thinking here is that with the drone laying queen followed by replacement and rebuilding of worker population what bees I had left were pulled back into the main body of the hive to maintain the colony and therefore had no time ... or inclination to fill up my super. ..... Would this be a rational thought or has something else happened that I missed ?? Is there something I am not doing ???

thank you all in anticipation of your generous help

 

[Swarm]

Spot on, sounds like a very reasonable assessment.
Bees need numbers to do anything and will not over reach themselves.

 

[ashley hunter]

Thank you so much for your feedback ... I felt that may be the case but having made a number of mistakes over the weeks this all happened, I thought it wise to sound out those in the know. Just so you know it wasn't a complete mess, and I did have some Honey which was great fun extracting and bottling and I have several jars I am very proud of, despite the immense stress of being a first year beekeeper ... Thanks again

 

[ShinySideUp]

Thank you so much for your feedback ... I felt that may be the case but having made a number of mistakes over the weeks this all happened, I thought it wise to sound out those in the know. Just so you know it wasn't a complete mess, and I did have some Honey which was great fun extracting and bottling and I have several jars I am very proud of, despite the immense stress of being a first year beekeeper ... Thanks again

You must be a very bad beekeeper as none of us here have ever made any mistakes!

 

[Popparand]

Thank you so much for your feedback ... I felt that may be the case but having made a number of mistakes over the weeks this all happened, I thought it wise to sound out those in the know. Just so you know it wasn't a complete mess, and I did have some Honey which was great fun extracting and bottling and I have several jars I am very proud of, despite the immense stress of being a first year beekeeper ... Thanks again

If you have produced any honey at all in your first year you have done well.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

It's good that you were able to identify the change in the colony. However the other reason for them not filling the super is no or not enough forage!
For my girls, there's zippo at the moment.

 

[ashley hunter]

Thank you for all the feedback / help, very much appreciated.

 

[Bakerbee]

Ive got no idea what mine are on atm but theyre filling some frames in a super ive got on . The ivy is not out down my way but theyre on something. Loads of pollen being brought in too.

 

[simonforeman]

S

Same as mine bakerbee... mine are bringing in loads of orange pollen. They do not have loads of stores but are holding their own at the moment with a little in reserve. Ivy is not far away so keeping a close eye on them as all 4 hives are still bursting with bees and queens still laying up every spare cell....

 

[beeno]

The ivy is not out down my way but theyre on something. Loads of pollen being brought in too.

I bet the ivy is out in some places as you are south of me!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Ive got no idea what mine are on atm but theyre filling some frames in a super ive got on . The ivy is not out down my way but theyre on something. Loads of pollen being brought in too.

Ivy is some way off but the Evodia is popular.

 

[Bakerbee]

Well i just got back from dog walking. Our house backs onto disused railway line now a footpath and fields. Ivy is in bud form atm but not in flower yet. Some small patches of wild flowers but its really dry and sparce around here. I shall walk the other direction in the morning and wonder down to the river.... i feel like inspector clouseau....

 

[Bakerbee]

Lovely photo btw

 

[Millet]

I don't know exactly what is on offer here but the three Nucs i have in my mothers garden have found a source somewhere... they are also bringing three types of pollen in...yellow/orange and cream coloured... i have balsam 400yrds away but the bees are not white on returning so it has me stumped.

 

[Angry_Mob]

In the garden I've seen the bees on Borage, Marjoram, English Marigolds and they're going mad for the heleniums.

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

See my other OP on "orange pollen" but Hawksbeard has gone crazy across the country...

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[iann41]

At the moment there is a flow on here. Not a great one but steady. After a gap of about a 3 weeks/month, the nectar has been coming in for a fortnight now.

Pollen on the other hand is coming in by the tonne. The hive in the garden is collecting several types. It's mainly cream or white but a lot of bright orange and a gold coloured. Two types of yellow, a lemon and a very, very light yellow. There is also a little that's a dark greeny/blue. I understand this is the last of the rosebay willowherb.