BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING

To Spring feed or not to feed? (Hives, in Melbourne, Australia).

(1/2) > >>

damienpryan:
Hi All,

I'm torn as to whether to do a Spring feed.

9 out of 10 of my hives have survived winter but are all extremely light.
They didn't go into winter with much honey on storage.
On warm days the bees are all flying in with pollen.
On cold days there isn't a bee to be seen.

I haven't opened them yet.

I'm thinking of giving them a 'Mountain Camp' style feed each.
(IE add a kilo of white table sugar on the top board).
The feeding style is simple and has worked for me before.

On the other hand I don't want to give them so much that they think swarming in a month or 2 is a good idea.

What do people think?

Cheers

Damien

BeeMaster2:
I used to not feed at all. I left enough honey on the hives to survive the winter. Come spring they all made it and would start to build up. When the late winter nectar, Maple, stopped, many of my hives would abscond to find better pastures. Last spring I fed them and I did not lose any. I only put 2 tiny holes in the feeder jar lids to minimize swarming. They get a continuous small amount of nectar but they are not able to back fill with it. It just helps feed the brood.
Jim

220:
I put sugar in mine a few weeks ago mountain camp style because I was worried about stores after a starve out in one.
3 of them are slowly consuming it the 4th is dumping it out the front door.

awootton:
Open and check - mine (Melbourne) have fresh nectar in the cells - no need to feed, collecting nectar is what they do

M3RLIN:
Maybe just give them 500g sugar each over 3 days. If they eat it good. If they don't, just stop feeding them and try workout why they aren't strong enough to eat.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page