Should i put my super on top of the brood now, ie is it spring yet

[JohnnyD]

Hi All

When my bees seem to have survived the winter, and a lot of activity yesterday in the sun, i put a super on top of the brood yesterday with a sugar syrup in there, should i move the super from the bottom of the hive (winter mode) and place it on top of the brood now?

JD

 

[Poly Hive]

If they are ok then just leave alone, we are still in Winter until really the end of March.

PH

 

[BobsBees]

johnnyd.
Just imagine, all that empty space above the brood, and we get another very cold snap. where can the girls go to cluster again?
Put it back how it was and leave alone until the end of March!
You might have already sealed their fate already.

If your loft is insulated, and you remove it to put new up there, but cant do it for several days and we had a cold snap you wouldn't half notice it. And we are warm blooded, not so the bees!
Bob.

 

[itma]

When my bees seem to have survived the winter, and a lot of activity yesterday in the sun, i put a super on top of the brood yesterday with a sugar syrup in there, should i move the super from the bottom of the hive (winter mode) and place it on top of the brood now?

I read this as your having fed some syrup, and used a shallow frame to enclose your feeder.
Its a bit early probably, but hopefully shouldn't do any harm.
I know of at least one near me who has started syrup feeding already. (I'll wait a bit!)
Did you use 2:1 syrup or 1:1?


Its likely more than a month before you should be thinking of putting a super full of frames above a QX, itself above your brood.
And that might even be the box you have under your brood box at the moment.
Patience!

/ But you might think now of taking off the mouse excluder on warm days when you see the bees flying strongly, and maybe putting it back overnight.

 

[Arfermo]

Met a pal today who has 51 hives and 20 nucs and been a beek for 75 years and he has put thin syrup on already. I've had a super on one very active large colony for over a week now so as to keep them busy and will be feeding syrup this week dv.

Up to you whether you do but with nice weather in abundance lately see no reason why not on one or two say.

 

[oliver90owner]

Thin syrup (for extra water for brooding), yes. It is the end of Fed and perhaps only two brood cycles before the OSR flow starts'

The OP is fiddling with a single colony, so that advice is irrelevant in this case. Further it is very not clear, whether advising thin syrup or supering.

I think he means a feeder over the crownboard, not simply over the brood, but things need a little clarification - lilke more precisely, what has been done, and how?

 

[Finman]

Thin syrup (for extra water for brooding), yes. ?

Show me one research about it. I saw tha in Dublin they have 14C temp. Bees get water from ground.

Extra water for brooding! Never seen that kind of text.

Super on?

It totally depends on how the colony grows. It may be June when you need a super. No one knows.

.

 

[Silly Bee]

I think, read "Eke" rather than "Super"

 

[Finman]

.
What is Eke then?

When a colony starts to make brood after winter and it gets pollen from nature on regular base, the colony gets regular brood area and can continue it.

It depends how big the start is, but lets look a normal hives which occupye one whole box.

To produce one frame of brood bees need same amount of pollen. Willow pollen is light and they need it 50% more than average pollen. If a week is good, bees may store pollen so much that they live with it one rainy week. If weather continues as bad, bees slo down brooding to save stores.

However in best cases, it takes about 6 weeks before the colony start to expand. When new bees start to emerge, old bees go out to search food and they die very soon.

After emerging bees must be 2-3 weeks old before they start to forage.
Practically 4 weeks brood + 3 weeks to become a forager. = 7 weeks.


4 weeks as brood means that you need at least one week's laying that you get enough foragers.
Surplus doe not come from first egg to first emerged bee and then first field bee.


In UK you have more or less brood during winter months.

At least in USA they write that normal hive takes 6 weeks after winter before it is ready to forage surpluss. A hive forage all the time but it consumes the food to brood rearing.

A small colony takes more time to build up as surpluss forager, but 3 months should be enough to any colony,.... unless it does not swarm...

 

[oliver90owner]

Show me one research about it.

It does not need a lot of brainpower to realise that developing larvae have a high water content. It does not need a lot of understanding that the normal food for nurse bees (to convert, for larval feed) is nectar and pollen. It is a fairly well understood (by most) fact that honey has a (considerably) lower water content than nectar.

Most hives are not in Dublin and temperatures might (in other places) fall to much lower levels, than that indicated, for extended periods before the winter is over. Pray tell me where the water for brooding will come from, were the colonies to be confined to the hive for, say, two weeks?

While larval development will require those three things in abundance (water, carbohydrate and protein), development also needs favourable conditions (warmth and nurse bees).

One would expect anyone with a skeret of common sense to realise all that - and as to the origin of those requirements, they do not simply 'materialise' from thin air (only for those living in cloud cuckoo land). Even the less educated on the forum realise that. That leaves a very tiny minority (of one, it seems) who appear to have absolutely no common sense whatsoever.

 

[susbees]

.
What is Eke then?

Strange word for a square of timber maybe 5cm deep used by those who have roofs too shallow to take a feeder or thymol treatment etc without its presence.

 

[susbees]

.
Willow pollen is light and they need it 50% more than average pollen.

Can you tell me what this means. Thanks.

 

[Finman]

Can you tell me what this means. Thanks.

The minimum need of raw protein of pollen mixture is 22% out of dry weight.
Willows have about 15% raw protein. Fireweed has only 10%. Pine has 2%.

To get enough protein bees need to eate more pollen to make larva milk

Fresh yeast has 13% protein. It is as much as in the hen egg.
A dry yeast has 50% raw protein and amino acid content is very good.

 

[drstitson]

Finman - much of the UK is now officially in drought. So despite our now maritime climate there is little surface water around for bees to collect. we've not even had many frosts (less than a full week so far this winter) to provide water on melting.

I'd imagine many might resort of feeding thin syrup for the first time this spring.

 

[Black Comb]

Much of the south of England is in drought. Northern England,Scotland, Wales and Ireland are not. Plenty of water here.

 

[Finman]

Finman - much of the UK is now officially in drought. So despite our now maritime climate there is little surface water around for bees to collect. we've not even had many frosts (less than a full week so far this winter) to provide water on melting.

I'd imagine many might resort of feeding thin syrup for the first time this spring.

Holy poo!!!
That is only "pet beekeeping" habits like over 50% of tricks on this frorum.

Bees take the water from ground. They surely find enough water.

Don't keep me fool. The nearest lake near my bee yard is 10 miles. They need not lake or river for that.

 

[Finman]

much of the south of england is in drought. Northern england,scotland, wales and ireland are not. Plenty of water here.

ok, save the bees!!! for God's sake

 

[Silly Bee]

Finman - much of the UK is now officially in drought. So despite our now maritime climate there is little surface water around for bees to collect. we've not even had many frosts (less than a full week so far this winter) to provide water on melting.

I'd imagine many might resort of feeding thin syrup for the first time this spring.

How much water do they need?

My landing boards are covered in dew this morning, and I have a bowl with water and pebbles near. Plus a bird bath.

 

[Finman]

How much water do they need?

My landing boards are covered in dew this morning, and I have a bowl with water and pebbles near. Plus a bird bath.

You must change you nick name "smartbee"

 

[gavin]

JD

Don't overfeed. At this time of year the bees should have used up a lot of their stores so that in that final rush of brood raising before the foraging season gets really underway they don't need to move sugar stores upstairs into your supers when they need more space in the brood box. Try and adjust your feeding to follow this natural rhythmn of the hive. They will need a few frames of stores to see them through the next month, that is all.

Some folk build up their bees for the OSR crop especially when that is their main honey crop. Thin syrup helps there.

Supers under and over? I only put a super under when I want the bees to clear it out, as they don't seem to like stores under the brood. Plus they prefer to work upwards over winter. Supers go over when they are close to filling the box underneath. One of mine had a spare super with honey put back over winter as they were running short of stores and it was the easiest way to feed them at the time.

Your main reason for feeding would be if the colony is going hungry. I doubt that yours is in that state.

G.