Spring buildup

[Vance G]

Went back thru my survivors and things are looking better every week.  I have two that are getting requeened because they are miserable people to be around and one or two because they are slow getting going from a low spring population.  I took my hand truck out and moves weakest to the strongest for these slow leaks.  Since no nectar to gather yet and half of flyers are coming in with pollen, it seems like the right thing to do.  I hate not to do what experts like Mr Palmer does and that is brood equalization.  At my low total numbers I need my boomers to keep booming so I can produce some OTS splits later and honey from what should be a great spring flow if I can keep them in the boxes.

 I did some drone opening and I can't find any mites!  I again forgot my sugar roll jars with the hardware cloth lids.  Between my small cell bees and mite biter genetics something seems to be working.  I think my vsh queens were all winter losses as I found no marked queens and that supplier marks his.  My Florida queens from Carpenter Apiaries seem to have come thru well and survived the endless winter just ending.   

[10framer]

don't let mr. palmer know you bought southern queens.  he definitely won't approve of that.
tell me more about those mite biters.  i want some of them.

[Vance G]

I have no choice but to buy southern queens if I want them in the spring.  I wish Mr. Palmer had some to sell this time of year.   I am attempting to raise some but that won't be for four weeks or more.  Bill Carpenter is a retired commercial beek who selects his queens by selecting queens from colonies that have not been treated for mites and are grooming off and biting pieces and legs off mites as shown by examining stickyboards.  He claims treatment free since 2005 I believe.  He is in Frostproof Florida and 2/3 of my surviving colonies are lead by queens I got from him last year.  They are mostly Italian looks like.  carpenterapiaries.com 

I got some more from Washington State and the guy is selecting survivors and groomer/mite biters.  I tried the vsh route but I think there was too much expression of the trait or I got a very bad batch.  Whatever is happening.  I only had one colony with any number of dead mites mixed in the trash on the bottom board.   I have two to requeen for more defensiveness than I want but I worked thru my bees today without smoke or gloves to see who was the easiest to get along with.  I want to bring a couple in to my home in town because I can't stand all that stuff getting ready to bloom and no bees around.  All but the two were kittens today with half carrying pollen back into the hives.  No nectar flow yet though. 

[10framer]

well, i'm in the south so i i'm fine with southern queens.  are they pretty productive?

[Vance G]

Good production from them.  We were awful dry so was no great shakes of a year.  Plus my stupid pet trick last year was to sell nucs and to sell the nucs I promised, I really raised cain with my production.  Tanstaafl

[10framer]

i may order a few from them.  i need to put some bees in some outyards and i may dedicate a 5 or 6 hive yard to those queens to try them out.

[Bush_84]

I am starting to get a bit worried about my spring build up.  It's still been cold and my clusters don't seem to be getting much bigger. 

[buzzbee]

Are you guys feeding pollen for the buildup? They need protein and carbohydrates for brood building. I had pollen substitute out in an open feeding box and on flying days they devoured the stuff. Once it was warm enough to fly any distance when natural pollen started coming in you couldn.t force the pollen sub to them.
Some bees will groom the paint off of the queens,or the paint quality for marking is not as good.

[Vance G]

Buzzbee, my 15 remaining wintered colonies have consumed 80 pounds of 15% pollen Global patties.  I will be ordering another box tomorrow which should be here in time for my next inspection.  Those folks don't mess around!  They get it out the door to you!  My queen supplier just called to ask if I was ready for bees next week as scheduled.   I said send em but I really wish I had told him to wait another week as I will have a lot more capped brood in a week for splits.  I will make my splits into three plex nucs with double screened bottoms and set them over unsplit hives and wrap them back up to keep them really warm. 

 half the returning bees have pollen but no nectar yet.  I see a pear tree in the neighbors yards with some white petals just starting to unfurl at the bottom branches.  it's coming!  Come on Montana Warming!   

[10framer]

the main flow will be over down here in a matter of weeks and you guys are still feeding.   i can't imagine it.   

[buzzbee]

I only have syrup on my packages at this point. The remaining hive patties inside the hive are not being touched anymore and as I said, they laid off the pollen sub a little while back.Stuff is opening up here.Good dandelion bloom starting.

[sc-bee]

the main flow will be over down here in a matter of weeks and you guys are still feeding.   i can't imagine it.   

Will we really have a main flow :?

[Vance G]

I only have syrup on my packages at this point. The remaining hive patties inside the hive are not being touched anymore and as I said, they laid off the pollen sub a little while back.Stuff is opening up here.Good dandelion bloom starting.

I used to have bees quit taking patties and they quickly dried up and became garbage.  These ones I am using now are consumed if the bees are raising brood!  Today I see maples blooming and a pear tree turning white.  I sprayed the dandelions in my yard!  What a crime.  My bees are out of town and it is 1400 feet higher and though they are bringing in four colors of pollen, I see no flowers.   Forecast is for a cooldown for about another week in the low fifties.  Glad I got a sunburn yesterday so I can remember the sun.

[Ryan820]

I don't mean to hijack this post but the pollen patties has me interested. My hive is brand new and while they drank up the sugar water (some drowned, but I ended up putting pebbles in the reservoir to fix that) but the pollen patties were hardly touched.

I have bee pro pollen substitute... Should I be feeding these guys dry pollen instead?  They seem disinterested in the patties.


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[Vance G]

They may be no more eager to take the dry powder though you can try it.  Bees need nutrition even in the dark and on cold rainy no flying days.  I have half my bees busily bringing in pollen but I don't see very much stored as it is being used as fast as It comes in I think.  I don't think they shop less than a forty pound box but go to globalpatties.com and read their materials and look at the pictures of patties being eaten right down.  Mine are doing the very same thing. 

I think the patties available from the bee supply stores are largely dried up turds that are just not that palatable to the bees and are not consumed once any pollen can be gotten from nature.  I have averaged feeding 5 1/3 patties so far and I figure another three pounds each will bring them to when they can gather pollen faster than the brood can it eat it.  I also think it is important to feed it in the fall to help produce those winter bees we all want.  I am just real happy with the stuff.  I get no commission and I don't know the people, I just know they are moving a good product and getting it out fast when you order it.  I like the 15% irradiated pollen added patties myself.  They are $1.49 a pound plus shipping.