This is my first season so any help would be appreciated.
The new colony quickly filled the bottom 10 frames in the spring and I added a second box in June. They filled up two or three frames on that box and haven't done much more.
In July there was very heaving bearding and I was worried they were cramped so I added a 6" super.
But I haven't seen any new progress on comb in a month. Any ideas on what could be going on...a work slowdown perhaps?
Matt,
I think you are correct, it is a work slow down. The last month has been hot and dry and not much for the bees to forage on so they stay home and beard and line dance. You may not need that 3rd box if the 2nd box does not have 7 or 8 frames drawn out. The bees will only draw comb out if there is a flow on or you are feeding.
If the 2nd box has a few frames that are drawn out but they are in the middle you can move some foundation frames in between the drawn out frames.
As Ski said, don't have more than one box of empty frames. If the 2 bottom boxes are not fully drawn, remove the third box. They will not draw new wax if they have nothing to put in it. Feed to get it drawn, or wait for the fall or spring flow. Then they will draw as needed
Great info...and greatly appreciated. Can you tell me what your rule of thumb is for harvesting honey? I'm wondering if I should take any this season if I only have 2 full boxes...how much do Guilford County bees need to make it through winter?
In this area, you want about 40lbs of honey on the hives for winter. I like to have a medium full or mostly full of honey above the bees, plus whatever they have stored in the hive below the top medium super.
If you are going to feed sugar water for the bees to start putting up "honey" you will want to use a 2 parts sugar to 1 part water mix. You can hope for a fall flow, but don't count on it. If you are going to try and get them to draw wax now, you will need to feed heavily and use a 1:1 mix. The problem with this is that the bees are very likely just to take the feed and fill up all of the open cells and become "nectar" bound, leaving little or no room for the queen to lay eggs. Moderate feeding of a 1:1 mix may give the bees the resources they need to keep rearing the over-winter bees that you want.
I am assuming that your 2 full boxes include the brood frames and pollen frames and that you do not mean that you have 2 full boxes of honey. If this is the case, and if you have a frame or 2 of honey, it would not hurt to take it and enjoy some honey IF you are going to start feeding sugar water immediately so that you do not risk losing the bees to starvation.
If I were going to feed now, I would want entrance reducers on the hive with the large opening and I would not put the sugar water in the top feeders until late in the afternoon. I would not use boardman (jar feeders at the front entrance) feeders this time of year. You want to do all you can to avoid starting a robbing frenzy at your hives.
are you using plastic foundation ?????? in 10 years of having bees i have yet to get them to build on plastic ,, they will go find some other place to raise there baby's before building on plastic ,,, and yes it was waxed
I can get bees to draw plastic foundation in April and into about mid-May. Once the main flow is over it gets iffy. You might be able to get bees to draw comb now in the Florida Keys. North of that, I doubt even wax foundation gets drawn in December.