second brood chamber

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burch

New Bee
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
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Location
northants uk
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Number of Hives
2
hi as advised i am trying to get my bees moved over from my national to a smith hive that i purchased by adding a crown board and placing the smith brood champer on top. the new chamber has been on the hive for about a week. i have checked it today and the bees have not yet started to draw out the comb. i pressume that this is due to the weather we have had over the last few days making it impossible for the bees to get out. Please advise.
 
Have you put a feed on them to help draw the foundation ?

They should be able to draw out a Smith box in around 6 days with a good feed.
 
Ca canny admin. 6 days? they will take as long as it takes feed and weather depending.

Best not to put times on these things as folks then have specific expectations.

PH
 
Thats very true PH.
Although a couple of weeks back I put a second national brood box on a hive and fed 2lb sugar and then another 2lb the next day,they had fully drawn every frame at the end of day 4 and by day 10 the queen had laid up 6 frames.

But like you say what with weather and location I may be setting myself up for a fall with that post above.
 
Not to mention your bonny sunny mild climate unlike any other in the UK hmmmmmmm??

PH
 
We have not seen the sun all day if its any consolation.

Here is a temp and weather graph for the last month at home:
 
no i havent given them a feed. take it by 2kg you mean 2kg of sugar syrup soloution.
 
I do 1KG (2lb) of sugar to a 2ltr coke bottle then fill it up about 3/4 with water and shake then feed that to the bees,you can also add a little Thymol to stop fermentation if its hot.
 
i have a miller feeder i take it i just make up the feed and place it in the feeder and place this on the top of the hive. when you say 2lb of sugar to a 2litre bottle of coke you mean that you mix the water with the sugar ahen fill the bottle 3/4 full
 
I add the dry sugar to the bottle with a small funnel,it comes to about half way up the bottle,I then add water until the level is 3/4 up the bottle.

I think its about a 1-1 solution,that is 1kg of sugar to 1 litre of water.

Its a bit of a dirty way of measuring it but it works for me.
 
thanks for that i will make some up and go feed it to them tomorrow. i am correct in saying i just put the feed in the miller feeder in the top of the hive.
 
Thats it,just poor it in.

You will notice a massive difference in a few days regards drawn comb.

Average sugar price in the supermarket this week is about 93 pence a KG unless you can get a big 5kg bag from Asda at £4.00.
 
Or better yet find someone like me with a Bookers card.

60p a kg I think.

PH
 
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