Not enough stores

[JG_7oaks]

I am worried that my bees will be seriously short of stores for the winter. I have ten fames in a WBC brood chamber; no super. The colony has developed from a nuc I got locally in May. There was plenty of healthy brood developing in June/July. In July, even though the bees had apparently run out of enthusiasm for drawing comb and had left the outer two frames undrawn, I put on a super as I hoped there would be a sudden flow. I went off on holiday and when I got back at the end of July, the super was still empty and in fact I didn't have any frames full of honey - just arcs of honey stores on each frame in the brood chamber.

Six weeks later nothing has changed. What to do? Do I start feeding now with 1:2 - and how long can I carry on giving them this. I understand that when the temperature drops too low they cannot metabolise syrup?

 

[isc26]

Normally the end of feeding is by start of Oct so you have time, just. Feeding after that runs the risk of stores not being capped & fermenting as its too cold to evaporate off the water to below 20%.

The mix is 2:1 that's 2 kg white granulated sugar to 1.25 L water. Heat water dissolve sugar into it, try not to boil, they can easily take in 10 L per week or more. Some colonies are thrifty with stores but what your describing sounds low. 18 - 20 kg of stores is the norm recommended for winter survival

Outer frames not being drawn is not uncommon.

What was the max no. of frames of brood over the summer? How many now. The other possibility is a that the queen is less strong than ideal but too late to do much about that now.

With small colonies I sometimes take out empty frames and put in blocks of kingspan (cavity wall insulation) with the edges duct taped to keep warmth in but in a WBC you may have less need for that

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think you may have put the super on too early, giving them too much space to keep warm thus stopping the production of wax

 

[sbisme]

I too was in the same position as you WBC hive and a nuc in July, by mid Aug there was very little stores so I give them some feed which they took down, at the moment they are on HB and still have the Ivy to come, I have weighed the hive and it is now looking stong with stores, as said above eed with 2:1 and keep an eye on the weight.

 

[JG_7oaks]

thanks for these very helpful comments. I have put a gallon of 1:2 syrup in a Miller feeder on top and I'll hope for a couple of weeks of good weather! And next year I'll try to make more time for visits to my local BKA apiary so that I have more input as I go along ...

 

[sbisme]

JG_7oaks it should be 2:1 sugar to water for winter feeding.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Depend on whether you add the water to the sugar or sugar to water

 

[plot72]

That's a great idea with the Kingspan, I have a small swarm about 3 weeks old so still very small, would it be a good idea to just keep feeding them masses of syrup in the hope they will build resources for the Winter or attempt an amalgamation with another similarly small colony?

 

[JG_7oaks]

JG_7oaks it should be 2:1 sugar to water for winter feeding.

thanks sbisme - that's what I did. Just got my fingers twisted (or I could claim I was thinking water to sugar, but the truth is I wasn't thinking when I typed ...)

 

[Dishmop]

Depend on whether you add the water to the sugar or sugar to water

and dont get the spoon wet because once wet it wont hold the correct ratio of sugar.