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Author Topic: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...  (Read 1808 times)

Offline Intheswamp

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Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« on: August 10, 2012, 09:05:00 pm »
This newbee is trying to figure out what to be prepared for in the next month.  :?

We have been blessed with rain throughout the summer.  The last few weeks have been very hot and moist.  I would say that this has been one of the wettest summers in recent history around my local area.  With all this water things are very green...I've given up on cutting my grass, have ruled out a herd of goats as I'm going straight for a herd of elephants.  We've been blessed...

Am I probably right that when things start popping open and blooming that it will be a heavy flow...if it doesn't get washed away?  Being a newbee I'm still short on drawn out comb and can definitely use more...lots more.  Do I work the bees like I did in the spring with supers of foundation?  Will they draw out comb as they did in the spring?  It makes sense that they would, but...I'm a newbee.  :-\

If they put up more than a super of goldenrod per hive should I go ahead and extract the surplus?

I feel like I'm just bumbling along here and probably not even asking the right questions.  Any pointers are definitely appreciated.

I know that lots of you have suffered drought, my prayers are with you all for some much needed rain.  As I mentioned, this has been a strange summer for us...much more rain than normal.  Some of the weather that we've had the last couple of weeks reminds me strongly of the 1/2 day before a hurricane makes landfall in the Florida panhandle...blustery, rainy, misty, really odd...but, I'll take it!! :)

Ed
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Offline David McLeod

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Re: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2012, 09:09:17 pm »
Treat it like the spring flow. Add foundation ahead of the flows. Sometimes you can get them to draw on syrup but not always.
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Offline AllenF

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Re: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2012, 09:54:54 pm »
Here, North Georgia, we get enough for the bees to make it through winter.   I let them keep it all.  Honey supers are in storage now.  The hives are just double deeps now.     Nobody likes to eat sweaty socks honey anyways.   :-D 

Offline David McLeod

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Re: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2012, 10:14:21 pm »
I never expect to make a surplus in the fall. Since I do run single deeps I do make sure I have an empty in place for fall and if that one gets filled I add another. Whatever is left come spring gets added into the summer harvest.
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Offline AllenF

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Re: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2012, 10:44:23 pm »
Do you winter all your hives as singles?

Offline David McLeod

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Re: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2012, 11:18:04 pm »
My basic stack is a shallow a deep and a single medium to over winter. I use the shallows as a slatted rack the deep only because jumbos are no longer available and the medium is what I use for extracting. By may there will brood in both the deep and medium.
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Offline Joe D

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Re: Southern rainy weather, fall flow, comb production...
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2012, 12:24:31 am »
Being across stateline from swamp, we have also got lots of rain this year. We got over 2 inches yesterday and it has rained off and on most of today.   A couple of week ago at monthly bee club meeting some were feeding there bees to get the numbers up for fall flow.  I don't know what all will be blooming but last year about a mile away there was roughly a 70 acre field of golden rod that could be seen from the road.  This place has other fields also just can't see them.  Over the last 10 years the man, wife and their 2 sons have all died.  He had about 300 acres with a good branch running through it, part of it joins my land. 


Joe