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Author Topic: how long do you feed your bees  (Read 9289 times)

Offline Archie

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how long do you feed your bees
« on: June 27, 2004, 08:23:05 am »
How long sould I feed my bees?
Honey, Vermont sunshine in a bottle.

Offline michael l burnett

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2004, 08:52:57 am »
hi archie ; this is mike in woodstock...We just stopped feeding our bees.it seems once colony has grown to two supers and a honey super is in it would be time to make honey. im no expert but i do know that honey made from sugar water is not real honey. god bless......mike
                                                                    woodstock vt.

   p.s.           please wait for more info (as im a novice beekeeper)
                    and its nice to meet anouther green mt. bee nut !

Offline Lesli

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2004, 09:03:33 am »
Newbee here too, but my books (and a lot of people here) say keep feeding them until they won't take it anymore (cause they have something better) or when you're trying to make "real" honey.
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Lesli

Offline Archie

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2004, 10:41:07 am »
four of my hives are new this with undrawn comb.  all four hives still have about 5 frames each to be drawn out.  they go thru a lot ofr 1:1 syrup every day.  I need to refil the entrance feeders every morning.

Archie
Honey, Vermont sunshine in a bottle.

Offline Archie

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2004, 10:48:12 am »
Mike,

there is another member from Vermont.  Her name iis Judith Frey from Westford, Vermont

The is my second year with the bees.  I had 4 hives last year but a bear got two of them and one did not make it thru the winter.  I bought two nucs of Carniolan bees and two 3 pound pakages of Italian.  

The hive from last year(carnoilan) is doing great, the other four are very slow.  I was not able to get them until the beginning of June.

My problem is that I watch them too much.  Every day.  Its like watching paint dry but I am hooked.  I even have a couple of hummoing birds taking syrup from the entrance hive.  We have become great buddies.   :D


Archie
Honey, Vermont sunshine in a bottle.

Anonymous

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2004, 12:18:13 pm »
Quote from: Archie
Mike,

there is another member from Vermont.
Snip.....
I bought two nucs of Carniolan bees and two 3 pound pakages of Italian.  
Snip.....
The hive from last year(carnoilan) is doing great, the other four are very slow.  I was not able to get them until the beginning of June.

Archie


I purchased two NUCS of Carniolan bees from a guy named Pater down in Anhurst NH. (I'm in Concord NH) the first of the month as well...Same Guy?

My hives are a 25 minute drive out in the countrie so I'm not watching it as much. I have been inspecting every four to five days. I have one hive with 4 mason jars on the top innerboard with two shallow supers covering them and the 2nd hive has one of those styrofome top feeders. At the rate they are taking the sugar water 4 to 5 days is just about right for refills. I do notice that the sugar keeps better in the mason jar feeders. I have to scrub down the styro. top feeder when I replace the sugar water.

I just picked up a bottle of Honey B Healthy, that should pep up the bees & hopefully make the sugar water last longer.

It looks as though the queens are laying & are working on the outer new frames (5 frame NUCS). Another keeper in this forum suggests that I move the outer NUC frams outward so I think I'll move the NUCS outside honey frams one frams over on one side & two frams out on the other side. I'm not going to split any brood!

I'm going back out this afternoon & will give you all a report of the progress. I plan on feeding till late fall, perhaps longer. If I do feed thru winter I'll put a styrofome feeder on the 2nd hive. I'll be able to refill w/o disturbing the bees & it should do a better job at insulating the hive.

Oh, Since I have over 400.00 invested in these two hives I purchased a Critter Gitter from Betterbee.

http://www.betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=589

So far so good, Anybody else running one of these devices? Don't want a bear comming along and tearing up my only two hives.


 Robert McHenry

Offline Mchero

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2004, 12:21:10 pm »
Looks like my post was entered as Guest! Oh well, it was me, McHero!

Robert McHenry

Offline Mchero

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2004, 08:37:07 am »
I went out to check on my 2 NUC's sunday afternoon. Was planning on moving some frames around to promote comb extraction but found that both queens where laying eggs like crazy. Lots of capped brood as well as larva. Looks like both hives are in full gear!

Added my sugar water with the Honey B Healthy. Relized after I got home that I might have added too much Honey B Healthy but I did add it to the untreated sugar water so I did dilute just a tad.

Hope everyone elses bees are doing as good as mine.

RM

Offline michael l burnett

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bears
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2004, 02:31:14 pm »
we have bear in our area and trying to get strong electric up. i hpe they leave us alone till. gonna add anouther super today.
       happy beekeeping
                      brookie

Offline buzz

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how long do you feed your bees
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2004, 05:33:24 pm »
You should feed them until they stop taking it or you put on a super.
Scott
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