SITUATION OF POLLEN BEFORE FEEDING

[Finman]

Bees need pollen frames during winter.
First they need pollen in autumn when last bees emerge. They must eate pollen to make their fat body ready.

If the pollen frames are situated in their original summer places, against the wall and in the lower box, pollen will get easily condensation moisture and it becomes mouldy.

Pollen frames are better to move away from walls. And in double brood best place is in the second box. Not in the middle of box, but a frame away from wall. There pollen is easy to get to be use to larvae.

 

[elainemary]

Bees need pollen frames during winter.
First they need pollen in autumn when last bees emerge. They must eate pollen to make their fat body ready.

If the pollen frames are situated in their original summer places, against the wall and in the lower box, pollen will get easily condensation moisture and it becomes mouldy.

Pollen frames are better to move away from walls. And in double brood best place is in the second box. Not in the middle of box, but a frame away from wall. There pollen is easy to get to be use to larvae.

Thanks that’s a good tip. Just been looking through my spare drawn combs and put aside a couple with good stores of pollen, that I plan to add to a couple of Nucs building up, this week. I’ll put them away from the wall as you say and in the brood extension, it would be a shame to waste them as they don’t seem to store well over winter.

 

[Markthebuilder]

Will bees move pollen down into bb box

 

[Murox]

Thats a good question. They do prefer to eat fresh pollen but store loads of it too. They certainly move nectar/honey around all the time as the need arises, I see no reason why they should not move stored pollen around too when needed. In single brood box system most of the pollen tends to get stored near to the brood ready to use.

 

[Finman]

Will bees move pollen down into bb box

No they don't.

They only eate from cells.
When bees are in winter cluster, they do not move honey neither . Befote clustering bees gather honey from perifheria to the centre, where last bees have emerged.

 

[Finman]

Thats a good question. They do prefer to eat fresh pollen but store loads of it too. They certainly move nectar/honey around all the time as the need arises, I see no reason why they should not move stored pollen around too when needed. In single brood box system most of the pollen tends to get stored near to the brood ready to use.

Bees do not move pollen "around". They consume every day pollen and make food juice to larvae. They need pollen for example for rainy week. If pollen is finish, they start to eate open larvae.

Bees like to store pollen into brood box near brood, but if brood space is too small, they store it into super frames.

In autumn pollen frames are situated so, how the beekeeper has organized the brood soace.

I use 3 langstroth brood boxes and in the best flow time bees fill the lowest box with pollen. And bees like to store pollen into dark combs.
With this system super frames do not have pollen. They store pollen too against side walls if combs are dark and because dide combs are cold for brood.

 

[Finman]

I repeat this again:

××× pollen stores will be so, how the beekeeper organize the brood space.

××× pollen stores get mould in placed where most condensation happens.

××× condensation happens in coldest places of the hive, and there the bees tend to store pollen too because they avoid to situate brood in those places.

××× if you have brood in outermost frames agaist the walls, in summer your brood space is too small. It is advantage if bees can store pollen into brood box next to larvae.