BBKA Forum

AdamD wrote: ↑

14 Sep 2019, 09:23

The (new) owners had been lovingly filling a rapid feeder repeatedly so that there was just a tiny amount or space for brood - about the size of a school protractor at the bottom of a couple of frames - so the bees had had enough and scarpered. The feeder was still full when I arrived to see what had been going on. So yes, you can over-fill a colony!

I spoke with a beginner recently who had been feeding since June and she was amazed at how much food they had taken. They swarmed at the beginning of August, then she removed all the queen cells in a panic, god knows if they will survive.
Feeding for a beginner is a difficult art, as it is for the rest of us often.

Cheers, Mick.

Dashed home at 4pm to try and catch the bees in a happy mood as the sun was out and I wanted to check for any QCs I missed 5 days ago as I took a few down and by the end the bees were getting impossible to deal with. Anyway I got a few frames in and they were a bit too much for me. New queen has been in only 5 days so I didn't expect much of a temper change.

I packed up, might go back in on Saturday but I'd imagine a missed QC will emerge at that point, it being day 14 since the queen was sent away. I really don't think I missed any, but hey, I can imagine that's how everyone who has lost a bought-in queen to one feels.

Stuck the Ashforth feeder on. They have one frame to just do the finishing touches on the comb and it'll be good. They've another that needs some serious rebuilding. Hopefully 8 litres of syrup will do the trick.

I even had a couple of bees follow me and ping my veil, fly around my head (maybe looking for a gap in?) which is out of the ordinary really. Can they tell I've become a bit more nervous since the double hand-sting event? Are they getting angrier because they know the new queen is a lovely Buckfast and they're not wanted anymore?

On another note I haven't seen any wasps the last few days....

With a newly installed queen, they should not be drawing queencells - and 5 days is quite quick for a full inspection. Was she laying?

Yeah she was laying. Maybe the 5 day thing was why they were annoyed.

Might just leave them be for a while and hope I didn't miss one.

As a bit of an experiment I put on a super of foundation onto my native AMM colony last week as the weather down south is still good, I like to nadir later on but this one didn't develop enough in the summer to get a first super to fill, anyway they have taken down a good 12kg of syrup and I although I did expect they might have had a go at some comb building I was surprised to find nearly four dawn, filled and heavy in a matter of days at this time of the year.

They will draw comb throughout winter if there is feed like fondant present.

Today I converted 200kgs of sugar into thick syrup.....sump mixer works a treat.

Today I checked the feeder I put around 8 litres in last night. It's not far off empty. Still, the heft felt the same as the other hive of same config so I'll leave them to it for now.

Checking nucs that are to be over wintered. They were set up about 5 weeks ago and I was a little worried they'd be a little week but nope, they've come on really well. Nice strong 6 frame boxes full of stores and brood and bees. I'm very happy with the new maisemore poly nuc. Working a treat.

Chrisbarlow wrote: ↑

20 Sep 2019, 17:55

Checking nucs that are to be over wintered. They were set up about 5 weeks ago and I was a little worried they'd be a little week but nope, they've come on really well. Nice strong 6 frame boxes full of stores and brood and bees. I'm very happy with the new maisemore poly nuc. Working a treat.

Keep a good eye on them. I lost a 6 frame nuc at the end of August which starved after the worst August weather ever here. Very good queen built 5 frames of brood and ran out of food, I came back from holiday to find a queen and about a 100 bees and 5 frames of dead brood. Not a single cell with pollen or nectar in. The wasps finished them off a week later. If I had been home they would have gone into a full brood with a feeder on. No one expects 4 weeks of torrential rain and hurricane winds in August !
KEEP THEM FED !
Cheers, Mick.

MickBBKA wrote: ↑

21 Sep 2019, 01:26

Chrisbarlow wrote: ↑

20 Sep 2019, 17:55

Checking nucs that are to be over wintered. They were set up about 5 weeks ago and I was a little worried they'd be a little week but nope, they've come on really well. Nice strong 6 frame boxes full of stores and brood and bees. I'm very happy with the new maisemore poly nuc. Working a treat.

Keep a good eye on them. I lost a 6 frame nuc at the end of August which starved after the worst August weather ever here. Very good queen built 5 frames of brood and ran out of food, I came back from holiday to find a queen and about a 100 bees and 5 frames of dead brood. Not a single cell with pollen or nectar in. The wasps finished them off a week later. If I had been home they would have gone into a full brood with a feeder on. No one expects 4 weeks of torrential rain and hurricane winds in August !
KEEP THEM FED !
Cheers, Mick.

Solid advice Mick. Thanks