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Author Topic: feeding and frame rotation  (Read 1316 times)

Offline amyburemt

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feeding and frame rotation
« on: May 14, 2013, 11:09:25 am »
i have 2 questions and am a new amateur beekeeper.
1. at what point do i stop providing food for my bees? i have an external jar feeder and they were going through it pretty quickly but now that has slowed down.
2. i have 2 brood boxes, the top one is new. should i and how do i rotate the frames in the boxes so that they fill them?

thank you so much. i used to be afraid of bees, but this opportunity has completely opened my eyes and educated me. we have even lessened our neighbors fears and they are now "pro bee"

Offline Finski

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Re: feeding and frame rotation
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2013, 11:34:18 am »
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The basic idea is that hive gets it food from nature.
Actually a hive grows better if it has minimum amount of brood and maximum amout of combs for brood.

When the hive is about 4 boxes big, it is ready to get surplus honey.
Foragers and home bees must bee in balance. If foragers are too few, brooding consume all nectar.

Most problems come when a small hive cannot handle nectar. Brood space will be stucked and colony will swarm.

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Offline Finski

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Re: feeding and frame rotation
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2013, 11:37:27 am »

2. i have 2 brood boxes, the top one is new. should i and how do i rotate the frames in the boxes so that they fill them?


Rotating does not help. They just move it to another comb.

If hive has too  much sugar frames, take them off and free combs or foundations to them.
Then you may use sugar later.
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Offline Steel Tiger

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Re: feeding and frame rotation
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2013, 12:35:43 pm »
2. i have 2 brood boxes, the top one is new. should i and how do i rotate the frames in the boxes so that they fill them?

 If you're trying to get them to build in the second box...and they're refusing, you could pull the two middle frames from the bottom and put them in the same position on the top. then push the bottom frames together and add an empty frame to each side.
 If you're doing foundationless, I would do the same except on the bottom box, push the two center frames together and add the empty frames between them and the outer frames.