Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: andrewj59 on December 15, 2008, 09:40:25 pm
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Hi,
A question from a newbie (Australia, so it is warm summer here): out of three hives, two have good traffic and ~50% with pollen. The third one - somewhat smaller traffic, but most surprisingly very few with pollen. Anything to worry about?
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I would not be too quick to worry, even queenless hives bring in pollen, they always seem to be able to at least find pollen. Check in on them, they just may not be finding quite as much as the other two hives. Make sure you have a queen and she's laying.
...JP
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AndrewJ59, just curious. I might have misunderstood what you're saying but I take it that you have 3 hives and 1 is noticeably weaker/less active than the others, right?
I was curious about something, maybe just an afterthought, but are all three hives in a row? If so, is the weak hive in the middle?
If what I'm asking doesn't fit your scenario, just disregard or tell us 'No'. I was thinking about some other things I noticed from this year and your scenario sounds like it could be similar...
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It's probably nothing to worry about. However, if you are concerned, you can swap hive locations with your strongest to equalize population and foraging.
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Many thanks to all that replied. The hives are not in a row, one is far away and the one in question is close to another one. The overall volume of traffic is not very much different, it is the nature of it that puzzles me. Why two have heavy pollen traffic and the third one does not? Is it an indication of something? Or is it just an indication of my ignorance? Curiosity killed the cat, but it is still a good way to learn things. :)
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Every hive is different. Certainly much can be gained by studting the entrance. Once you see something different, or questionable, it is up to you the beekeeper, to open up the hive and take a look. It may be something, or it may not.
I will say, that even here in the north, the bees are favoring collecting pollen. A few days back, I put some syrup out. After awhile, I also put some dry substitute out, and the bees went from the syrup to the pollen sub almost immediately.