What a difference 2 weeks makes

[Floyd]

Just thought I would let you guys know what is going on up here in the NW Highlands, which will hopefully give some reassurance to those of you that take your bees to the Heather.

Having been away for 2 weeks and during that time have been worrying after reading reports of starvation.

Before I went away the situation was :

Hive 1 No stores and queen had gone of lay, so I fed a 1 1/2 litres of syrup

Hive 2 Queen had slowed down with broad on 5 frames low on stores.

Hive 3 No sign of Queen or eggs, low on stores.

I deliberated for some time about feeding hives 2 & 3. All hives are permanently located within acres of Heather which had started to flower, but due to the bad weather was not being foraged. It had so far been an awful year, with an almost complete failure of the wild flower and raspberry gathering opportunities destroyed by the rain, although the blackberry is now also in full swing.

Returned today and went into the hives before I had even unpacked carrying 5 litres of syrup.

Hive 1 Brood on 5 frames with perfect Honey arc, 6 1/2 filled Super frames.

Hive 2 BIAS on 7 frames, 8 super frames partially capped.

Hive 3 Queen seen with Brood on 6 frames, super is jam packed with 50% capped so now need to make up some frames.

It was certainly a great surprise to lift off what I had presumed would be empty supers.

Some will say I was lucky, but as a gambling man I looked at the form(weather) and placed my bet. Had I fed all hives to cater for 2 weeks worth of feed I would now have syrup contaminated Honey. Where as now I have a chance of maybe even beating last years harvest of 52lbs as the weather forecast for the next 5 days is perfect.

Also on a different note. Still no signs of swarm preparations in any hives apart from 2 play cups in Hive 2. (will be asking a question about this on another thread)

So a very good result considering the amount of worry I had felt whilst away. Must go and knock up some frames now.

 

[B+.]

Hive 3 No sign of Queen or eggs
Hive 3 Queen seen with Brood.

I thought she'd have marked her own thorax while you were gone....whats wrong with her? ;-)

 

[Tremyfro]

Wow Some! Bet you are thrilled...well done.

 

[Obee1]

Wow that's some turn around. Well done for keeping the faith in them. As you fed hive 1 how would that affect your honey crop - do you assume the higher supers are pure honey - or was it so little feed as to be of no consequence to any of the supers?

 

[user 6228]

Just thought I would let you guys know what is going on up here in the NW Highlands, which will hopefully give some reassurance to those of you that take your bees to the Heather.

Having been away for 2 weeks and during that time have been worrying after reading reports of starvation.

Before I went away the situation was :

Hive 1 No stores and queen had gone of lay, so I fed a 1 1/2 litres of syrup

Hive 2 Queen had slowed down with broad on 5 frames low on stores.

Hive 3 No sign of Queen or eggs, low on stores.

I deliberated for some time about feeding hives 2 & 3. All hives are permanently located within acres of Heather which had started to flower, but due to the bad weather was not being foraged. It had so far been an awful year, with an almost complete failure of the wild flower and raspberry gathering opportunities destroyed by the rain, although the blackberry is now also in full swing.

Returned today and went into the hives before I had even unpacked carrying 5 litres of syrup.

Hive 1 Brood on 5 frames with perfect Honey arc, 6 1/2 filled Super frames.

Hive 2 BIAS on 7 frames, 8 super frames partially capped.

Hive 3 Queen seen with Brood on 6 frames, super is jam packed with 50% capped so now need to make up some frames.

It was certainly a great surprise to lift off what I had presumed would be empty supers.

Some will say I was lucky, but as a gambling man I looked at the form(weather) and placed my bet. Had I fed all hives to cater for 2 weeks worth of feed I would now have syrup contaminated Honey. Where as now I have a chance of maybe even beating last years harvest of 52lbs as the weather forecast for the next 5 days is perfect.

Also on a different note. Still no signs of swarm preparations in any hives apart from 2 play cups in Hive 2. (will be asking a question about this on another thread)

So a very good result considering the amount of worry I had felt whilst away. Must go and knock up some frames now.

Seems your bees know what they are doing I just wish they could let on what they are about

 

[Floyd]

Yes I am well chuffed and very relieved.

As Hive 1 was completely devoid of stores I have assumed that they consumed the small amount of feed that was given. Maybe I should mark the frames now and maybe move them towards to edge of the hive and use them if I can Nadir later on in the year. Then only harvest the newly filled frames.

"I thought she'd have marked her own thorax while you were gone",

B+ Yep she's still there with her original green colour that I used 2 years ago, she was obviously very good at hide and seek on during that inspection.

Now need to try to force them to raise some replacement queens.