Syrup strength

[PuckUk]

Hi,
I'm about to place a feed via a rapid feeder onto a small colony that needs rapidly to expand only just having established a mated queen, with cells that are just about to be capped.

Queen looks to have been fairly productive, but colony remains on the 5 frames of drawn comb since receiving the Nuc about 2 months ago.

Can someone please advise, I know it's probably already been asked and answered before, but I couldn't find anything when using the 'search tool'! What is the best ratio of water to syrup for this time of year?

I have been using 1 lb sugar to 1 pint of fluid, but was hoping to encourage some comb drawing as the new Bees emerge?

Thanks

 

[Winker]

did you slip in a frame of foundation inbetween the stores on the outside frames? Or are you just letting them draw out the frames as they get to them?

For drawing comb a 1:1 feed is best. If you use a 2:1 feed they may store it and cut down any room the queen has to lay in.

 

[PuckUk]

11 frames of foundation of which the centre 5 are the original drawn out comb from the Nuc, around 3 of these now have brood within in a nice concentric circle with stores surrounding.

Is it best to slip a frame of foundation in between the two outer frames leaving the 3 brood frames in the middle?

Will make up a couple of gallons of 1:1 strength tomorrow and ensure they have plenty of food to draw from.

 

[tonybloke]

11 frames of foundation of which the centre 5 are the original drawn out comb from the Nuc, around 3 of these now have brood within in a nice concentric circle with stores surrounding.

Is it best to slip a frame of foundation in between the two outer frames leaving the 3 brood frames in the middle?

yes!

 

[region2]

I go 1 litre to the kg - mixed using warm water in 5litre squash bottles (ask at a canteen near you) - 2 litres makes just under 4 litres, 3 litres fills the bottles but doesn't allow mixing by shaking.

R2

 

[Beeline]

Puckuk

No method is a dead cert. All I can share is my experience having also built up a slow building nuc this year.

They seemed reluctant to move onto the 6th frame and so on, so I experimented by removing the undrawn foundation on one side of the 5 frames and shifted the 5 frames of drawn brood/stores against the wall of the hive leaving 6 frames of undrawn foundation together. I then fed them a large quantity of 1:1 over the area of undrawn frames, using centre hole of crown board and overnight they started drawing out the comb on some of the frames which she subsequently started to use. Slowly she has built up.

Due to the difficulties of crown board holes being directly in the middle and other too far to one side to place a feeder directly over, I ended up with 2-3 undrawn against the wall. I have almost resolved that 'problem' using the somewhat controversial method of placing a single undrawn frame at a time into the middle of the nest, with positive results but take advice as and when you reach that stage. In your case it's probably unlikely they are going to be able to draw out 6 frames of brood before end of season - eight in total would be adequate to overwinter them on.

As always many views on this forum and each with their own experiences. Good luck.

BL

 

[Winker]

11 frames of foundation of which the centre 5 are the original drawn out comb from the Nuc, around 3 of these now have brood within in a nice concentric circle with stores surrounding.

Is it best to slip a frame of foundation in between the two outer frames leaving the 3 brood frames in the middle?

Will make up a couple of gallons of 1:1 strength tomorrow and ensure they have plenty of food to draw from.

Yes mate they draw out the foundation faster if its slipped in between the two outer frames, if they are used for stores.

DONT slip the foundation in the middle of the brood nest as some may suggest! Or you run the risk of chilled brood at this time of year. Its getting colder at nights now!

You are getting close to the end of the year, so you have to start to think about winter preparations and varroa treatment. You may need to ask your self if your brood box is too large of an area for your small colony. It may be a better idea to think about re-homing them into a 6 frame poly nuc box for the winter and start getting them to build their winter stores and do some sort of varroa control.

So as for feeding them a 1:1 feed, think about what your game plan is first!

 

[oliver90owner]

DONT slip the foundation in the middle of the brood nest as some may suggest! Or you run the risk of chilled brood at this time of year.

I don't actually think 'chilled brood' when splitting the nest - provided there are sufficient bees, they will cover the brood. It is more a risk of separating the nest and inducing supercedure cells if the queen is separated from that part and is getting a bit low on queen pheromone output.

 

[Winker]

DONT slip the foundation in the middle of the brood nest as some may suggest! Or you run the risk of chilled brood at this time of year.

I don't actually think 'chilled brood' when splitting the nest - provided there are sufficient bees, they will cover the brood. It is more a risk of separating the nest and inducing supercedure cells if the queen is separated from that part and is getting a bit low on queen pheromone output.

Yes you are correct, as always

My line of though was, it is a small colony in a large space and the weather is closing in. Splitting the brood may mean there are not enough bees to cover the brood if its split in half and some may be lost to the lower temp in their area of the BB box.

But as you sugest, the other side of the coin in splitting the brood by inserting a frame of foundation into the middle is there may not be enough queen pheromone to cover over both halfs of the brood.