pollen overload in brood box

[bellsbees]

We have had amazing weather, warm and sunny for 10 days and I am noticing my brood boxes are stuffed full of pollen, so much so that the queen is running out of room to lay.
Do bees rearrange and move pollen in the brood box?
Should I remove frames full of pollen?
Has anyone else got the same problem?

 

[Chris Luck]

Bees should self regulate the flow and storage of pollen into the colony, perhaps you could add more space?

Chris

 

[fiftyjon]

Bees should self regulate the flow and storage of pollen into the colony, perhaps you could add more space?

Chris

You could remove the pollen frames for later use, but create more space, preferable drawn comb for the queen to lay.

 

[Finman]

We have had amazing weather, warm and sunny for 10 days and I am noticing my brood boxes are stuffed full of pollen, so much so that the queen is running out of room to lay.
Do bees rearrange and move pollen in the brood box?
Should I remove frames full of pollen?
Has anyone else got the same problem?

That is not a problem. Bees cannot store pollen into the brood box and they store it into super. You should use douple brood.

Now, put the super under the brood box that they can use it as pollen store officially.
Bees will move honey from super frames and they use pollen when they need it. Bees move polen if they can use them as brood frames.

Perhaps your colony is eager to forage pollen. Pollen is very valuable, at least in Spring. Let it be there

Give foundations to be drawn. It reduces swarming.

.

.

 

[bellsbees]

Thank you Chris and Fiftyjon for your response. I have been watching the hive entrance and noticed not so many bees have pollen loads now. It has been a bee super highway, masses and masses of pollen being brought in. I will remove a frame stuffed with pollen and replace it with a frame of foundation. (I have no drawn foundation left). I suppose I could put another brood box with foundation on top.

 

[bellsbees]

Thank you finman, I will do and you say.

 

[Chris Luck]

That is not a problem. Bees cannot store pollen into the brood box and they store it into super. You should use douple brood.

Now, put the super under the brood box that they can use it as pollen store officially.
Bees will move honey from super frames and they use pollen when they need it. Bees move polen if they can use them as brood frames.

Perhaps your colony is eager to forage pollen. Pollen is very valuable, at least in Spring. Let it be there

Give foundations to be drawn. It reduces swarming.

.

.

Bees do store pollen in the brood box, that's exactly where they store it. I'm sure that's what you meant to say.
Adding a super will give space for excess honey stores - I wish I was so lucky this year but looking up a bit here now.

Chris

 

[itma]

I believe I am correct to say that, clingfilm wrapped and in the freezer, that pollen frame could be stored for a few months.
It would be very handy to have it any time that you were intentionally trying to raise a few queen cells.

 

[bellsbees]

I believe I am correct to say that, clingfilm wrapped and in the freezer, that pollen frame could be stored for a few months.
It would be very handy to have it any time that you were intentionally trying to raise a few queen cells.

I might try this, several frames are just total pollen.

 

[nonstandard]

I'm in the same boat, a 14 x 12 brood box with 6 frames of brood split straight down the middle with a full frame of pollen. I shall leave them alone they probably know what they are doing better than me

 

[Winker]

Aye just take the excess pollen frames out and pop in either foundation or a drawn comb, drawn comb being the preferred choice. You can then donate the pollen to another hive that needs it, or I just pop it in the freezer for latter use

 

[itma]

I'm in the same boat, a 14 x 12 brood box with 6 frames of brood split straight down the middle with a full frame of pollen. I shall leave them alone they probably know what they are doing better than me

As the beekeeper, your intellect can be used to help the bees, even if you can't force them to do what you'd prefer!

If the brood is really split by a pollen frame, I'd help them out by rearranging things.

Look at an idealised picture of a brood nest. Brood in the middle, then a layer of pollen, then honey stores.
Your pollen frame needs to be outside the brood area, with only stored honey outside it.
It is much easier for you to rearrange the frames than for the bees to move everything around.
Help them by shuffling it outside the brood.

If the pollen has gone stale, they'll prefer to consume fresher stuff, and eventually, you'll have to scrape the frame back to the midrib, because they are simply ignoring it (which does rather sound to be the case already).

 

[DanBee]

I believe I am correct to say that, clingfilm wrapped and in the freezer, that pollen frame could be stored for a few months.
It would be very handy to have it any time that you were intentionally trying to raise a few queen cells.

Yes, quite right but you're being a bit pessimistic on the merits of freezing Pollen frozen for up to a year is almost as nutritious as fresh, whereas that same pollen simply stored at room/ambient temperature would have lost 75% of its nutritional content in the same time.

I too have seen an over-abundance of pollen within colonies, but I'd rather that than the effects of a dearth. The supply-demand controls for pollen are much slacker than for nectar or water, principally because the foraging bee unloads directly into a cell, rather than through a house bee. The (un)willingness of house bees to unload liquid loads from foragers exerts quite a tight control on those foraging activities.

 

[itma]

Something that struck me a while after posting on this thread was that any time that you have MORE than enough pollen in the hive would be an excellent time to put on a pollen trap, and deliberately collect some 'raw' pollen for freezing.

That real pollen could then be added to any 'protein patties' you might want to make up (next spring?)



Quite apart from being more compact than a brood frame in the freezer, my thinking is that 'raw' pollen should store better (longer, while remaining appetising) than the 'bee bread' stashed away on the brood frames.

 

[Finman]

.
Bees store pollen next to brood.
They need space to do that.

One brood frame needs pollen an amount of one full frame.

When I have an upper entrance in brood box, often bees use nearest frame as pollen store in the middle of box.
Nurser bees eate pollen all the time and foragers bring it more.

.

 

[Russel]

Bees do store pollen in the brood box, that's exactly where they store it. I'm sure that's what you meant to say.
Adding a super will give space for excess honey stores - I wish I was so lucky this year but looking up a bit here now.

Chris

That is not a problem. Bees cannot store pollen into the brood box and they store it into super. You should use douple brood.

Could Finman have missed out "IF" at the beginning of second sentence?

 

[Finman]

Could Finman have missed out "IF" at the beginning of second sentence?

yes I missed. This phone is not very handy to make text.

 

[Chris Luck]

Which is why I put "I'm sure that's what you meant to say." which could save any readers confusion....

'cos the next thing you know someone will repeat it and repeat it and repeat it until...... well, we all know where that ends 'cos we see it and read it all the time.

Chris

 

[VEG]

Well it must be right if someone said it

 

[Chris Luck]

Well it must be right if someone said it

You got it in one, no fooling you eh?

Then it will be in a "book about bee-keeping" 'cos everyone's writing a book these days.

Chris