Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: tom on August 12, 2006, 12:37:44 am

Title: Mr. Bray i need some advice
Post by: tom on August 12, 2006, 12:37:44 am

Howdy

  Mr. Bray i have plenty of bees in the hive and my new NWC queen is laying to good she is laying eggs in cells that are not even half way drawn. i put a empty frame of foundation close to the brood and they have not even started so i gave them some food and they took it all up in no time. I am hoping as new brood  will help in the expanding and drawing out the rest but i do not want them to fill all of the cells with syrup and the queen from laying.

Tom

Title: Mr. Bray i need some advice
Post by: Brian D. Bray on August 12, 2006, 01:37:14 am

If the queen is laying in partially drawn comb the bees will have pleanty of motivation to keep on task.  I've caught many swarms on foundation and had the queen start laying within 2 or 3 days of being hived.  Needless to say she was proactically laying on the foundation.  The bees had the comb drawn out and were able to cap the brood by the proper stage of development.  
If your feeding has stimulated the hive into brood production then I would continue to feed it until the majority of the comb is drawn.  When you see a slacking off of comb building then stop feeding as that is when they will shift to stores from wax building.
The key to proper feeding of bees is to know the clues that tell you what the bees are intending and stop or feed as necessary.  It is better to under feed a hive than to over feed it.

Title: Thank you sir
Post by: tom on August 13, 2006, 01:06:07 am

Hello

    I have not given them any more food and they are working good and the queen is laying like a machine. All my hives are raising brood like crazy and they are still bringing in lots of pollen. Thank you for all of your help i will keep you up to date on how things are going.


Tom