Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: adamant on October 04, 2012, 07:16:27 pm
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they are not taking the feed (it does smell little spoiled!)
what i was thinking of doing is ,on the top box remove the un drawn frames and replace them with drawn frames to give them a little start.. what do u think?
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Bees do better with drawn frames. And that smell is from goldenrod honey in the making.
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Sound to me like you don’t have a double deep colony and they’ve stored all the syrup they want for the winter. They won’t fill an infinite space this time of year, even with drawn comb. Not only that, but they won’t have time to dry the syrup and cap it before winter. It sounds to me like what you have is a colony that doesn’t really fill even one deep. What I would do is winter in a single deep and insulate well (6 sides if possible) if you’re using wood boxes. A colony of bees that is really 1 deep (or less) does well over winter here in a well insulated hive.
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I would definitely put in drawn comb.
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Yep, if you're going to add frames on top of your deep colony, definitely go with combed frames. ;)
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Adding empty comb and keeping dead air space above the colony is not wise at this time of the year. Knock the hive down to one deep. then add what they need in the way of stores by fondant or dry sugar. This will help. http://www.pennapic.org/feedingsugar.html (http://www.pennapic.org/feedingsugar.html)
Never have empty comb above thew cluster through winter. This is where the heat will collect yet the bees have no use of that area. Normally they will eat up through the stores and by late winter will benefit from the trapped heat in the upper half of the hive. With empty comb above the cluster, something that NEVER happens in a feral colony or by the bees making, you are giving them a death sentence many times.
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thank you for your responces