When Does one know thre is a Flow for Honey???

[TapStoneBees]

Well if there is one thing this experience in beekeeping has taught me, that is the virtue of patience.

This weekend I thought I would be able to pull off my super and extract some sweet rewards.... but alas, there was nearly nothing in the upper supers, okay, there were some frames being drawn, but the rest was bare, I mean right down to the Plastic Pierco Frames.  The two deeps I have are loaded with honey and brood, above those I put a queen excluder and the supers..... now what????

I am wondeirng do Bees buiild differntly on plastic than they do wax??  And when is it that you know there is a flow of nectar and pollen.  My bees have been coming back to the hive completely loaded up with white dust, yellow dust, and lots of both in there pouches.  They also have had some very black pollen as well....what is that from.  

From what I know around here the golden rod is getting ready to flow, and I have about an acre of Buddelia, that is currently in full bloom along with the lavendar.... will that be something that will help them build.    

I so want to know how the rest of you have fared wilth you honey this year, and  What you thought of the season...... lessons learned????

Thank you for your time and attention,

[tom]

Hello Friend

  I to am going thru the same thing but it has been dry all summer here at first my hives were doing good except my big hive that was the best one has just stopped. And they have two chambers but the queen only laid  in tow frames in the top and then they were putting honey up top then they just stopped. My other two hives which were weak are now growing and working like crazy all three are bringing in plenty of pollen from some tall weeds around the hives but as for nectar i don't know we have gotten three inches of rain from ernesto and now it is starting to rain again so maybe they will get it together but if my big hive does not show me any thing good i will divide the two chambers between the other two since they have young queens and let them handle the rest but i am going to check on them when the sun comes out and see what is going on so please keep me inform since i am in virginia.

Tom

[Michael Bush]

>above those I put a queen excluder and the supers

There's the first problem.  You have to bait them up through the excluder.

>I am wondeirng do Bees buiild differntly on plastic than they do wax??

They hate plastic until they have drawn it.  Then it's all the same to them.  You pretty much have to give them no choice to get them to draw plastic foundation.  They build wax with much more enthusiasm.  They build their own comb with even more enthusiasm.

[Brian D. Bray]

I've heard that painting the plastic foundation with either another coat of wax or sugar syrup will get the bees to work it--but first get the honey excluder (I mean queen excluder) off the hive.

[TapStoneBees]

Okay then, thanks for the string on the last post, though still I didn't get an answer to the qustions from before regarding nectar and pollen.  Alas, the quest for information continues.  i appreciate your time,

 Alright then, I guess from what I hear, the Queen excluder is really excluding the opportunity for me to gain more honey from this last nectar flow.   From those of you who have great experience in keeping bees, why is this so.  I thought that if you gave the queen enough room to lay eggs, she would go ahead and fill all the supers with brood, is this not so?.  I am eager to learn and trial and error seem to be good mentors, though I am looking to hear back from real folks.

Thanks for the time and attention,
This forum is Great!!!!

[Brian D. Bray]

I use 4 medium 8 frame hives (not 8 frames in a 10 frame box) as my basic brood chamber which is the equivalent of 2 deep 10 frame boxes.  Then a slatted rack instead of a queen excluder.  General rule--give the queen as much room as she needs or demands and then begin counting supers.  If all of your equipment is the same size (mine are all mediums) then moving frames between boxes to better consolidate brood frames is much easier and makes hive management that much easier also.

[Michael Bush]

>They also have had some very black pollen as well....what is that from.

I have no idea.  But I have seen some flowers with black pollen, they were some sort of ornemental flowers.

>From what I know around here the golden rod is getting ready to flow, and I have about an acre of Buddelia, that is currently in full bloom along with the lavendar.... will that be something that will help them build.

Maybe.  I have a lot of goldenrod blooming and the bees appear to be in a dearth.  I don't know why.

>Alright then, I guess from what I hear, the Queen excluder is really excluding the opportunity for me to gain more honey from this last nectar flow.

It already excluded the earlier flow.

> From those of you who have great experience in keeping bees, why is this so.

If you had to physically sqeeze through the door to get to your living room how often would you go there?

> I thought that if you gave the queen enough room to lay eggs, she would go ahead and fill all the supers with brood, is this not so?

The queen NEEDS room to lay eggs to keep them from swarming and to build up the population.  She will expand the brood nest as much as necessary.  She will not lay eggs willy nilly all over the hive unless she has no drone cells in the brood nest and there are some somewhere else.  The bees want a consolidated brood nest.

I use no excluder and all the same size frames.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#uniformframesize

[TapStoneBees]

Great Information, Thank you for your help.

I guess getting into the living room, is difficult if you do have to squeeze in each time, Guess it would be hard to get anything done.

If I remove the excluder now, and leave the supers atop, and want to convert all of my hives over to medium with 8 frames......

How does one get the bees to move from the large frame down to the small and small cell?

I just purchased medium wooden frames, with small wired cell, to start the bees over on making smaller cells.  Can I just incorporate this into a new hive or should I wait to switch them over in the spring???

I have a question in assembly for the wooden frames... the two pieces of wood at the bottom, that hold the wax wedged.  Do these have to be nailed to the frame.... and if so, Which direction, I keep reading not into the Wedge, but then where??

Thank You for your Help, This is a Great Feedback Forum.
I will keep you posted on the success or failure.....either is a Great Learning Tool!

[latebee]

Michael Bush wrote

I have a lot of goldenrod blooming and the bees appear to be in a dearth

   I can not speak for all regions-but in my area the first goldenrod that blooms has a flat topped flower configuration- and the bees don't make much from it. A little later, the taller spiked goldenrod(we always called it Compass Goldenrod) blooms and they make one heck of a lot of honey from this. Then there are about three or four other varieties that bloom along with the taller variety,of which I would have to study to be able to identify. I think one is called hairy goldenrod. The wild asters are not blooming too well this year around here. American Bamboo is flowering along the creek banks right now.Hopefully the fall crop will be substantial.

[Michael Bush]

>How does one get the bees to move from the large frame down to the small and small cell?

There are a lot of ways, most will work better in the Srping.  Mostly I'd try to get the queen and some brood in the mediums and the exluder between them and the deep (not in the winter or the queen will get abandoned) so the brood in the deep can emerge.  When there is a surplus you can harvest the deep.

>I just purchased medium wooden frames, with small wired cell, to start the bees over on making smaller cells. Can I just incorporate this into a new hive or should I wait to switch them over in the spring???

You can add them now and see if they will draw them.  But this time of year it's iffy.  If they do you can feed enough to get them to fill it and leave it on all winter.  The queen may be in that box in the spring and make your job easy.

[TwT]

this is the goldenrod that blooms here on my place, I have about 100 acreas here on and around my place... it hasn't started blooming yet but I see some buds on top of the plants so its about ready

[TapStoneBees]

Wow,
I love having this information right at the fingertips, and so much wisdom.

Thanks to all who suggested that I remove the excluder....I did, after much prying.  And Now, I guess I will wait to see what happens.  I currently have two hives each with  two deeps and four mediums.  The deeps are full of brood, honey and lots of bees.  Same for the second deep.  The supers put there a month ago are just beginning to get comb and honey drawn on them.  The last super added last week is just beginning to draw, so that tells me the flow is beginning.

I have a question though when working the hives.... should you smoke the hives too much, at all or not???

I wonder for the need for the practice, I notice in some literature when robbing they say no smoke, just you the hive and the honeybees.  Let me know your thoughts.... I am sure that I will have more questions coming.....

Can you direct me to where I can find out how to post pics????

Thank you for your time and Attention

[randydrivesabus]

the goldenrod is on the verge of blooming here too but still has not. but it will be any day now. my bees are still working the clover.

[Michael Bush]

>I have a question though when working the hives.... should you smoke the hives too much, at all or not???

Light the smoker well.  Give the door a couple of puffs.  Wait two minutes (not two seconds).  Pop the top and don't remove it until you hear the hum go back to normal.  Put one puff of smoke in the top.  Keep the smoker handy in case they get rowdy.  That was three puffs of smoke, total.

There's a reason that humans have been using smoke to calm bees for the last 10,000 years or more.  It works.

[TwT]

Can you direct me to where I can find out how to post pics????

Thank you for your time and Attention

http://www.beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?t=1430