Late Flow?

[beepig]

After all the trouble this year with my Bees and my first year as a bee keeper. All three colonies now happy with new queens.
Went in yesterday and to my suprise all three colonies have drawn and filling another super each.
1. Is this normal for this time of year, considering that summer has been on average three weeks ahead of itself.?
Will they fill these supers still?
2. my brood and a half has now three supers full including one below queen excluder, how much shall i leave them

 

[drex]

1. Probably, if the weather keeps going as it is. It is still only early August
2. I generally overwinter on brood and a half. They need about 40lbs to overwinter on, which is more than you can comfortably get in a National BB, leaving enough space for HM.

Still a bit early to be worrying about overwintering . Get your harvest off, treat if you need, then you can start to think about whether they have enough stores and whether you will need to feed.

 

[peteinwilts]

I can't be too far away from you, and after two weeks of very little activity, many of the ladies are now working hard again.

I am in the shadow of the Bristol channel (down the M4) and have a bit of elevation (500m), so my forage is still a little behind other places.

Whilst the bramble is very black near my work 20 miles away, they are still green and flowers are still abundant near my apiary's.
In addition, clover is still being hit hard, particularly when the sun is out.

The warmth of the air coming up the Bristol Channel allows for a long season for me and I do not start treating until around mid-September.

For the first 3 weeks of September 2009, my ladies were still filling a super a week.

Packing up too early can lead to lack of space and late swarming.

I tend to harvest in mid-September, just before treating. Depending on the weather and flow, how much space is left in the brood box, an extracted super might go back on underneath the brood box. They will then keep this over winter.

This does not suit everyone, and even just a few miles away it will be different.
You need to 'read' your local forage, understand your weather\microclimate, and read your bees. As the brood starts to retract, they will backfill with stores, so not a lot may happen in the supers. 'If' they decide to expand late on due to a heat wave\Indian summer, they will need a good amount of space to do so, or they will swarm.

 

[poshpikey]

Mine are still working the clover, bramble, knapweed and sanfoin. Some patches of white clover have gone brown but some are still white. The bees are loving the knapweed in a downland reversion field not far from them. A couple of hives five miles down the road have got a bit tetchy over the last week so I wonder if the forage where they are is not as good.

 

[Putnamsmif]

Good flow on here in Norfolk at the moment. Mixture of yellow, orange, red and light fawny colour. A lot of the bees are covered in yellowy/ orange pollen - any ideas? Filled half a super this last 5 days.

 

[rockdoc]

Just come back from East Devon, they must be packing it in down there considering the amount of rose bay and HB!

 

[Cazza]

Good flow on here in Norfolk at the moment. Mixture of yellow, orange, red and light fawny colour. A lot of the bees are covered in yellowy/ orange pollen - any ideas? Filled half a super this last 5 days.

Nothing doing on the border!
Cazza

 

[Mrs Webmuppet]

My bees are busy, but they are urban bees so are busy in local gardens, one of my colleagues (lives just a few minutes away from my house) plants bee friendly plants in his garden reports that my bees are very busy in his garden. They are also bringing in yellow pollen which is suspect is from ragwort on the Heath.

 

[Amari]

Nothing doing on the border!
Cazza

Nor south of the border - busy but not much coming in.

 

[stephenpug]

privet started

 

[masterBK]

Privet Honey !! In Dudley they used to call it mother-in-law honey as that is what you gave her if she asked for a "free" jar of honey. It has quite an interesting flavour and aroma that few would ever want another jar!

 

[itma]

My (sub)urbanish bees are all over my Fuchsia, which they were ignoring until a couple of weeks ago …

 

[Danno]

Nothing doing on the border!
Cazza

I also live in Norfolk/Suffolk bandit country, and have nothing much coming in. In fact, no surplus at all since the rape went over. The exception to this is my one experimental poly hive that has gathered a super and a half since rape extraction. I'm going to widen the experiment next season to 3 hives to see if it's a fluke or if they are more productive in the poly.

 

[Mellifera397]

Working the balsam very strongly atm. Almost every bee coming back to the hive is covered in the pollen.

M

 

[madasafish]

Working the balsam very strongly atm. Almost every bee coming back to the hive is covered in the pollen.

M

+1

 

[alldigging]

privet started

Ours has finished!
They're on the balsam here. Also bringing in bright yellow pollen this morning.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Balsamic here but things have definitely slowed down.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Working balsam at most of my apiaries but not sure how much it is yielding until I have chance to check the supers.

 

[victor meldrew]

Balsam isn't very drought tolerant, the recent rain has seen a surge in my bees working it , in a frenzy even
VM


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