Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: yes2matt on January 11, 2020, 11:35:43 am
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It was in one of George Imiri's "Pink Pages" articles that I learned about stimulus feeding . Sometime after solstice (read: about now) he would feed his bees thin syrup at a slow rate. Think a jar feeder with only a few holes in it. He said it would stimulate the bees to build up earlier, to have more bees ready to be foragers when the flow starts. He was in Maryland, FWIW.
I've done this once a couple years ago, didn't last year, and am contemplating doing it again now-ish. But I have a hint of concern about it and thought I should ask.
> if sugar syrup gets stored in the brood nest now, will the bees move it up into the honey supers later? Of course I would never have feed and supers on at once but will there be transported contamination?
> what are other risks of doing this I should k ow about?
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Where are you located?
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Where are you located?
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Charlotte NC. We have some red maples popped already tho not all, expect the rest within two or three weeks.
Also expect a nasty cold snap in Feb or March.
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My theory is, if it?s warm enough for bees to take sugar syrup and pollen sub, it should be warm enough in the hive to raise brood. As far as not wanting to mix honey and sugar syrup, I agree. The solution to that should be remedied if you add color to your sugar syrup. I read where Bill (eltalia) from Australia suggested adding color. I do not think he post here any longer. There should be someone here that can tell you the best way to do this.
Phillip
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They will consume it feeding brood before it will need to be moved. It's the pollen you need to worry about. If they fill a frame with pollen on both sides of the queen, they will not move it and she will not cross it to lay more brood. She won't break up her brood nest. The only negative to early feeding is early swarming. Keep your eyes open.
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They will consume it feeding brood before it will need to be moved. It's the pollen you need to worry about. If they fill a frame with pollen on both sides of the queen, they will not move it and she will not cross it to lay more brood. She won't break up her brood nest. The only negative to early feeding is early swarming. Keep your eyes open.
Good information. From what I understand that once queen cells are on the way, if caught before capping, something can be done to detour swarming, is that right? But once the cells are capped they will swarm in most cases?
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If queen cells are open and have larva in them you can make splits to prevent swarming. If they are capped they probably have already swarmed.
And I agree with iddee, they will use the early nectar/feed for raising brood. My bees tend not to start capping honey stores until the swarm season is almost over.
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If queen cells are open and have larva in them you can make splits to prevent swarming. If they are capped they probably have already swarmed.
And I agree with iddee, they will use the early nectar/feed for raising brood. My bees tend not to start capping honey stores until the swarm season is almost over.
Thanks cao, IF we wait to long, and find capped queen cells and the queen is still there, we can make an artificial split by moving the queen to another location along with more frames of bees and brood, (less any Queen Cells), tricking the bees into thinking they have swarmed? This presents a grand opportunity for up and coming beekeepers to expand their beeyard by using the excess capped queen cells, converting into other small splits. Is this correct?
Phillip
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Agreed Mr. Ben, with a new split the queen looks around [is tricked as you say] and sees all the new area, plenty of room for laying so she is content with the new digs and begins laying building up the newly created split.
Blessings
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Thanks Mr Van, I have much work to do in building an adequate amount equipment to be kept in reserve for just such similar scenarios for the upcoming season! Exciting time and work that can not wait until the last minute! 😁😁
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They will consume it feeding brood before it will need to be moved. It's the pollen you need to worry about. If they fill a frame with pollen on both sides of the queen, they will not move it and she will not cross it to lay more brood. She won't break up her brood nest. The only negative to early feeding is early swarming. Keep your eyes open.
Ok I put on some 1:1 with just a couple holes in the feeder. They're pulling grey (red maple) and yellow-orange (maybe dandelion?) as fast as they can get thru the door. It's "go" time. Which is good because I had a rough November...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n4XXettJp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5D11xwilrI
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Yes2matt - I would say the bees in those videos are most definitely raising brood.
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Yes2matt - I would say the bees in those videos are most definitely raising brood.
Yea and the gobbler made it through Thanksgiving!! :cheesy: :cheesy:
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Matt your killing me with envy. Those bees had pouch?s full of beautiful orange pollen. Will be March before I see my own bees gathering pollen. I was watching sleet and snow today, not a single bee ventured out of the hives.
Yes, I heard the gobbler too, kinda cool, right in the back yard.
Blessings
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Guys, I am confused. It is 75 degrees for the next few day, and I see some pollen coming in. However, I do not see trees blooming yet, AND it is close to freezing in about 4 days from now. Do I need to be worried about adding some space for the bees, or are they filling empty comb in the brood area? Do I crack the boxes and inspect brood frames, or leave the hive sealed up and wait for the mid February, which is the usual end of winter, and hope the hive doesn't swarm?
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It is 68 degrees here and I just finished going through every frame in 5 nucs. Open those hives and make adjustments as needed.
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Doolittle and Taylor always said the best stimulation is to leave them enough stores in the fall so they have plenty to spend in the spring. If I fed syrup here right now it would kill my bees with the condensation. Also, if I succeeded at getting them to raise a lot of brood they would get caught in a cold spell and cold starve. It does not work well in my location.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#stimulativefeeding
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Iddee, what did you see ? Anything unexpected
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Without getting into details, I saw a lot that needed to be done and the future isn't looking bright.
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Meaning there was not enough bee's or brood ?
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Correct on both.
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Why u think (weather) or stores ?
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Doolittle and Taylor always said the best stimulation is to leave them enough stores in the fall so they have plenty to spend in the spring. If I fed syrup here right now it would kill my bees with the condensation. Also, if I succeeded at getting them to raise a lot of brood they would get caught in a cold spell and cold starve. It does not work well in my location.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#stimulativefeeding
"Millions of honey at our house" I think is Doolittle's phrase.
I missed that boat in October. I'm in "plan B" mode.
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