Feeding 2X sugar solution, single hive gained 11 pounds in one day. Winter soon.

[van from Arkansas]

For your information:

Hive gained 11 pounds in a single day, this day, of feeding: 2X sugar solution.  I began feeding yesterday Tuesday: 2X sugar solution; 10 pounds sugar to 5 pounds water [5/8 gallon] in 4 open community feeders.

I did place the feeders away from the hives.  After I set up the feeders, several hours passed and no bees.  So I placed one drop of lemon grass oil in front of each feeder and wham, in minutes I saw scout bees and in no time, the feeder became buzzing with honeybees.

I was surprised by 11 pound gain in a single hive in a single day.  I would have guessed much less.  In 48 hours my 18 hives have consumed almost 50 pounds of sugar, 5 each 10 pound bags of sugar, not counting the water.  Of my 18 hives: 6 are nucs, 10 double deeps, 2 single deeps.  The weight measured hive is a double deep.

My Bees are in a heavily wooded area with very little Fall flow, goldenrod is seldom seen within 2 miles of my hives so I have to Fall feed.
Blessings

Van

[Ben Framed]

For your information:

Hive gained 11 pounds in a single day, this day, of feeding: 2X sugar solution.  I began feeding yesterday Tuesday: 2X sugar solution; 10 pounds sugar to 5 pounds water [5/8 gallon] in 4 open community feeders.

I did place the feeders away from the hives.  After I set up the feeders, several hours passed and no bees.  So I placed one drop of lemon grass oil in front of each feeder and wham, in minutes I saw scout bees and in no time, the feeder became buzzing with honeybees.

I was surprised by 11 pound gain in a single hive in a single day.  I would have guessed much less.  In 48 hours my 18 hives have consumed almost 50 pounds of sugar, 5 each 10 pound bags of sugar, not counting the water.  Of my 18 hives: 6 are nucs, 10 double deeps, 2 single deeps.  The weight measured hive is a double deep.

My Bees are in a heavily wooded area with very little Fall flow, goldenrod is seldom seen within 2 miles of my hives so I have to Fall feed.
Blessings

Van

Good job Mr Van. I like the Lemon Grass idea.
Phillip

[BeeMaster2]

I just filled my five gallon bucket back up yesterday.  I put a squirt of my honey in it and within minutes the bees were finding it.
Jim Altmiller

[Anonimo22]

That's really amazing on the 11 pound gain.

How do you keep the sugar syrup honey and the real good stuff separate once their mixed? (I don't see a thread for this.)

I'm guessing the 11 lb gain is an indicator or pretty good genes? What do you think?

[BeeMaster2]

Hopefully by spring the bees will have used my st of the honey. During an inspection the other day, I tasted the honey and there was no real flavor. Just condensed sugar water.
Jim Altmiller

[van from Arkansas]

That's really amazing on the 11 pound gain.

How do you keep the sugar syrup honey and the real good stuff separate once their mixed? (I don't see a thread for this.)

I'm guessing the 11 lb gain is an indicator or pretty good genes? What do you think?

By spring all the sugar syrup will be eaten.  The bees will separate the sugar syrup from real honey.  Genetics: this particular hive has a Cordovan queen that is 3.5 years of age.  Her off spring is gentle, an incredible laying machine, good honey producing hive with low Varroa counts.  I treat my hives with OAV.

Cheers
Van

[Ben Framed]

That's really amazing on the 11 pound gain.

How do you keep the sugar syrup honey and the real good stuff separate once their mixed? (I don't see a thread for this.)

I'm guessing the 11 lb gain is an indicator or pretty good genes? What do you think?

By spring all the sugar syrup will be eaten.  The bees will separate the sugar syrup from real honey.  Genetics: this particular hive has a Cordovan queen that is 3.5 years of age.  Her off spring is gentle, an incredible laying machine, good honey producing hive with low Varroa counts.  I treat my hives with OAV.

Cheers
Van

Mr Van, this is the girl that you II from, is this correct?

[jalentour]

One of the reasons I don't like to open feed is the hive will fill so much open space the queen will have limited space to lay.  In colder climates she must have room for her eggs or the hive will not make it thru winter. 
As much as I would love to open feed I choose to feed hives individually (in late fall). 
In your area it may work out well, I just don't want to take the risk.
Interesting how Ohio/Indiana has a different climate than Arkansas. 
How soon will you go to solids feeding only (Mtn Camp or similar)?

[van from Arkansas]

That's really amazing on the 11 pound gain.

How do you keep the sugar syrup honey and the real good stuff separate once their mixed? (I don't see a thread for this.)

I'm guessing the 11 lb gain is an indicator or pretty good genes? What do you think?

By spring all the sugar syrup will be eaten.  The bees will separate the sugar syrup from real honey.  Genetics: this particular hive has a Cordovan queen that is 3.5 years of age.  Her off spring is gentle, an incredible laying machine, good honey producing hive with low Varroa counts.  I treat my hives with OAV.

Cheers
Van

Mr Van, this is the girl that you II from, is this correct?

Correct Mr. Phil.

[van from Arkansas]

One of the reasons I don't like to open feed is the hive will fill so much open space the queen will have limited space to lay.  In colder climates she must have room for her eggs or the hive will not make it thru winter. 
As much as I would love to open feed I choose to feed hives individually (in late fall). 
In your area it may work out well, I just don't want to take the risk.
Interesting how Ohio/Indiana has a different climate than Arkansas. 
How soon will you go to solids feeding only (Mtn Camp or similar)?

I will place winter boards with fondant and burlap for moisture in October.

[van from Arkansas]

Hive is losing 1.5 pounds a day.  I stopped feeding yesterday, Thursday.  In the AM I do see bees with pollen coming into the hives.
Van

[TheHoneyPump]

Still picking up some weight here on late clovers. No frost or snow yet!  This season August was abnormal being cool overcast and rains for most of the month. Aug is usually a sunny and dry but cooling month with good flow.

https://map.beecounted.org/hive/summary/VZ9l

[Nock]

So I?m assuming those drops in weight were a honey harvest?  I?m jealous that you only had a few days above 80.

[TheHoneyPump]

Yes,
- large vertical drops are harvest
- sharp deep dives down are inspections.  6-29, 7-30, 8-26.

[van from Arkansas]

Two graphs of hive weight past week.  I stopped feeding August 29. I started feeding again today 9/2/19 Monday.

Van

[van from Arkansas]

Temp graph of a 5 frame double body nuc created mid August.  The sensor is above the brood.
Van

[van from Arkansas]

Same nuc with temp, green and humidity, red.



Van

[van from Arkansas]

So I?m assuming those drops in weight were a honey harvest?  I?m jealous that you only had a few days above 80.

Drops in weight is natural feeding.  I provide graphs above to provide details.

[van from Arkansas]

Graph of weight with outside temp super imposed on the graph. 
Actually 3 different graphs and can be a bit confusing I realize this fact.  I just wanted to demonstrate the actual graphs I view.  Weight is automatically recorded every 30 minutes.  I download the data every day or two.  The download takes one second, it?s fast.


Van

[van from Arkansas]

I fed 2X sugar this day.  I just took a reading of weight 6:00pm.  See graph:



86 pounds this AM, 95 pounds this PM same day.

Van