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Author Topic: fall management  (Read 7263 times)

Offline urbanbe

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fall management
« on: September 29, 2013, 12:41:15 am »
I have a late nuc that is in two deeps now. Bees are still foraging, bringing in pollen but drones are getting kicked out. Each box have 2-4 frames of brood and 2-3 frames of pollen/honey on the sides.
When you do final inspection before winter - do you consolidate frames with bees? Right now there are several frames with just bare foundation. If it will stay that way late in the fall is it better to remove empty frames?  Would you consolidate to one full box with full frames putting 4-5 frames with brood in the middle and full frames of pollen/honey on the sides? Or is it better to leave them in two boxes leaving a few empty foundations/empty drawn frames on the outside?   

Online Michael Bush

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Re: fall management
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2013, 12:05:40 pm »
I can't see that empty frames of any particular value other than where the bees are clustered, so if you can pull them and not leave an empty space (in other words, fill that space with capped stores) and get one less box, that may be worth doing.  You don't want all full frames.  The bees need empty comb to cluster on.
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Offline MsCarol

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Re: fall management
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2013, 11:12:11 am »
I can't see that empty frames of any particular value other than where the bees are clustered, so if you can pull them and not leave an empty space (in other words, fill that space with capped stores) and get one less box, that may be worth doing.  You don't want all full frames.  The bees need empty comb to cluster on.

Good timing on the question. Although we still have about another 3 weeks to a month before a frost, I was inspecting my hives yesterday and wondering just how to consolidate them for the winter. I want to limit nice winter digs for OTHER critters.

Will empty un-drawn frames work as a cluster hang out? If yes, where in the placement should they be in relationship to brood and stores? I use all 8 frame mediums....or am trying to.

Online Michael Bush

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Re: fall management
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2013, 07:40:55 pm »
>Will empty un-drawn frames work as a cluster hang out? If yes, where in the placement should they be in relationship to brood and stores? I use all 8 frame mediums....or am trying to.

Just make sure you have enough weight for the number of bees and the bees will leave themselves some cluster space.  They will only fill it in if you feed them too much.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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Offline Tightwad

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Re: fall management
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2013, 08:55:19 am »
Can you feed them to much I'm feeding now and it looks like there is a good mount of stores. I just come bind two hives and I hope they will make it OK!!!!!!

Offline merince

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Re: fall management
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2013, 12:46:14 pm »
Tightwad - you can definitely feed too much. I am not sure what your configuration is, but a double deep should be around 135 lbs. going into winter. A single should be around 95 lbs. These are the more common ones.

I have more details, including weights for different configurations on my blog: Fall inspections: Do I need to feed and how much?

 

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