Guilfordbeekeepers.org

Remember that EXPERIENCE is knowledge!!! You are helping me with what you are going through now. This will help those of us who are newer be familiar when we see what you are. Thanks for posting. That is the most valuable tool.

Solstice has passed. The days are getting longer. Time to start the new season. If the weather forecast holds, I will be putting pollen patties on Saturday. Then there will be feed and pollen sub. available to them on a continuous basis.

Jacob, there is a good chance of savung that colony if you do the same, providing it is queenright now. I would also fog it on the days it gets above 60 degrees.

I can feed sugar water and I have some pollen substitute I can mix up and serve. I don't have a fogger or thymol or a good idea about how to fog. I probably will switch out the solid bottom board for a screened one and may try quick powdered sugar drops when the weather is above 60.

You can borrow my fogger. It has about 50 fogs worth of fgmo and thymol in it. I won't be using it before mar. or Apr.

I would love to get it along with a brief operating instruction so I don't destroy your equipment or send my bees into outer space. If you want to pm me with your address, we can figure out a time when I can meet you. Also, if you have pollen supplements/substitutes for sale, I would like to get enough to try and get this hive through to Spring. I have some substitute I can mix up, but not enough to carry me through.

Thanks Wally.

Call me at 336-302-2708.

Wally...Pollen patties now???

For honey makers, emergency only. For bee breeders, yes, now.
Jacob has an emergency. I want to multiply hives.

I understand. We (honey makers) are looking for February to March for pollen feeding....correct?

I would check pollen and honey supply in Feb. and act accordingly.

Pollen feeding is always a fine balance between too many and not enough bees.
Wally certainly is early but if the bees will take it then he will definately be making more bees.
Commercial beekeeper, Jack Tapp recommends around Valentines day to start feeding pollen. This also corresponds with the Maple bloom which is our earliest major source of pollen.
If you feed too much pollen then you end up with swarming. Too little, and you may lose the honey crop. The trick is to feed just the right amount at just the right time Goldilocks!

Frank Wyatt said he started the week after Christmas.
He is raising bees, tho, and wants as many as he can get.

>>>The trick is to feed just the right amount at just the right time Goldilocks!<<<

That's why we elected you as president. So you could guide us to a successful year. We expect exact dates and amounts from you, and replacement of any bees that don't make it per your instructions.

Ok then...how is the best way to go about checking for the pollen supplies? I would assume go in on a warm day. Does this not stress out the hive?? Plus, you would want to make sure that you don't break the cluster. Now 60 degrees isn't enough for the bees to do a complete cluster break, right? How much pollen per frames of bees??? I knew I would have to worry about pollen stores before all was said and done!!

50 degrees is good enough for a complete cluster break. 60 is ideal for an inspection.

How much pollen? I don't know. I think bees eat honey and larva eat 50-50 honey and pollen, but I'm not sure.

Small cluster gets small patty! No sense of giving the bees more than they can consume in a reasonable period of time.

I had to sneak out of work early because of the ideal weather. I found my bees doing orientation flights and bringing in some pollen. They still have plenty of "honey" in the 2 medium supers, so I placed half a pollen patty in the hive. I removed the entrance reducer and fired up Wally's fogger. The bees were not happy. I will probably slide the reducer across the opening tonight because of the colder weather coming up but leave it easier to remove for when the weather warms again (around Sunday). Hopefully I have fired my first and an effective shot in my war against the mites.

Thanks Wally and happy new year to everyone.

Hope things work out in the fight against the kmights, mights, mites... those little blood sucking creatures.
Happy New Year to everyone as well.

Just an update on my remaining hive. It looks like I am in the comb management business until the nucs arrive. I had not seen any orientation flights in a couple of weeks, but bees were bringing in pollen. I went into the hive Monday afternoon and did a reasonably thorough inspection. There were scattered capped drone brood of an undetermined age and squinting as best I could, I saw only a few eggs and no capped brood. I did not see a queen. There is plenty of "honey" and a decent amount of stored pollen. There were far fewer bees in the hive than there were a month ago. The bees have not really gone after the pollen patty I placed in the hive a few weeks ago, unlike the one I put in a little over a month ago. I do not see any evidence of nosema or foul broods or diseases.

I was hoping to see my bees on the Spring blooms in the yard this year. Maybe next Spring.

When checking my hive Monday, I had two capped queen cells. If you can get here before they emerge, you can have one of them.

Does this mean you have drones already???