OP
PaleoPerson
Field Bee
Geoff,
At the last inspection on Friday 27th, all seemed fine with good brood, space etc. The only concern to me was the lack of stores on the brood chamber, I would have felt better if there were more, but almost all of my hives at all sites are like this and I am about to start feeding in the next week or so. This said, there are 4 frames of capped and open stores in the super and a few partial frames.
So overall, I felt comfortable with this colony. They are currently on 8 frames, but they are 14 x 12's. I am hoping they will fill the next four when the ivy comes in plus the additional feeding. I would like to remove the super for the winter, but they need to boost the brood box first before I can do that.
I intend to overwinter 14 x 12's on brood only and std nationals on brood and a half. The caveat with that is whether the colonies are strong enough and I suspect that there may be a few colonies going through as double brood. The next few weeks will tell.
I am beginning to suspect the bees do not like the hardware. I have already experienced this with one swarm walking into a nuc box and then walking straight out again and sitting back on the cloth, then when I presented them with a different nuc, they all ran in and have been OK ever since.
It may be that some colonies are more fussy as to where they live or something maybe present (poss Apiguard) they they do not like.
At the last inspection on Friday 27th, all seemed fine with good brood, space etc. The only concern to me was the lack of stores on the brood chamber, I would have felt better if there were more, but almost all of my hives at all sites are like this and I am about to start feeding in the next week or so. This said, there are 4 frames of capped and open stores in the super and a few partial frames.
So overall, I felt comfortable with this colony. They are currently on 8 frames, but they are 14 x 12's. I am hoping they will fill the next four when the ivy comes in plus the additional feeding. I would like to remove the super for the winter, but they need to boost the brood box first before I can do that.
I intend to overwinter 14 x 12's on brood only and std nationals on brood and a half. The caveat with that is whether the colonies are strong enough and I suspect that there may be a few colonies going through as double brood. The next few weeks will tell.
I am beginning to suspect the bees do not like the hardware. I have already experienced this with one swarm walking into a nuc box and then walking straight out again and sitting back on the cloth, then when I presented them with a different nuc, they all ran in and have been OK ever since.
It may be that some colonies are more fussy as to where they live or something maybe present (poss Apiguard) they they do not like.
would have loved to have seen that 
