Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: paulh on March 31, 2009, 03:00:02 pm

Title: feeding frames of honey
Post by: paulh on March 31, 2009, 03:00:02 pm
We still have a couple of weeks till things really start to bloom and my one colony seems awfully light.  I won't be here to feed them for the next 6-8 weeks, but I do have four frames that are 50-75% filled and mostly capped in the freezer that I saved for just such an occasion. 

Instead of pulling frames from the deep brood chamber and putting the shallower frames in (and disrupting a lot of bees on a 45 degree day), is it safe to add a super with the honey-filled frames this early in the year?   I suppose I'm concerned with having too much space for the bees to keep warm.  We can still get some cold weather in April.

Of course I'll thaw the frames of honey, but does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Title: Re: feeding frames of honey
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 31, 2009, 05:50:41 pm

To asnwer your question, yes it is okay to put a super on and use the frames from the freezer (thawed).  Essentially you are baiting the hive with those frames.  It will get the to warking.  If you go a step further and take out the outside brood frames from each side of the brood chamber and place them in the center of the super and replace the removed frames with empty frames you can very likely delay or extinguish the swarm of the hive this season.  That type of frame manipulation from the brood chamber is called keeping the brood chamber open and a very useful tool in swarm management.
Title: Re: feeding frames of honey
Post by: iddee on March 31, 2009, 06:06:23 pm
Brian, I think you missed this part of his post...

>>>>Instead of pulling frames from the deep brood chamber and putting the shallower frames in<<<<

He has a deep brood chamber and a shallow or medium super. They don't mix well. 

Yes, it is fine to add the super. You should have enough warmer days for them to rearrange the furniture to their liking.
Title: Re: feeding frames of honey
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 31, 2009, 11:18:55 pm
Brian, I think you missed this part of his post...

>>>>Instead of pulling frames from the deep brood chamber and putting the shallower frames in<<<<

He has a deep brood chamber and a shallow or medium super. They don't mix well. 

Yes, it is fine to add the super. You should have enough warmer days for them to rearrange the furniture to their liking.

I did noted the different sizes that's why my suggestions didn't specify frame size, the jog could be done with whichever box he wanted or add another deep if the frozed frames were deeps or add another medium if that's the case.  Whichever way it is still doable.