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Author Topic: Plenty of brood, but no honey  (Read 2401 times)

Offline Davepeg

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Plenty of brood, but no honey
« on: June 11, 2009, 11:11:49 am »
My brother called me this morning from upstate NY.  He has one hive (which we gave him last year as a house warming gift).  He went into the hive today and here's what he found.

In bottom box - there is brood on about 5 frames.  The other 5 frames had been damaged over the winter by mice.  We cleaned out the frames about 2 months ago and put them back in.  The bees have not touched those frames.

Middle box - Plenty of brood in about half the box.  Rest of frames are empty.

Top box (why he put another box on another box is  unknown to me) - same as middle box.  He thinks he sees some pollen, maybe a drone cell or two, but his concern is the lack of honey.

What should he be doing?  My husband and I will be visiting him in a few weeks (July 4).  I'm thinking we need to bring him down to two boxes but not sure how to do that and is there a concern of not seeing stored honey.  Plenty in bloom right now.

Thanks,
Peg
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Offline Kathyp

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Re: Plenty of brood, but no honey
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2009, 11:22:16 am »
doesn't hurt to take stuff.  you can haul it home if you don't need it, but if you need it and don't take it....

if they are raising brood, they are probably using all that they find.  sounds like the flow may not be to good?  if i opened a hive at this time of the year and found no stores, i'd feed.  he can withdraw feed when he knows there is good flow and honey supers....if he does.
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Offline Davepeg

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Re: Plenty of brood, but no honey
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2009, 12:31:00 pm »
There should be a great flow going now.  He is in a rural farming community, he sees the girls out and about on his veg plants and down at his pond. 
Maybe they are just using it all, he claims he has plenty of little bees flying out front.
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Offline G3farms

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Re: Plenty of brood, but no honey
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2009, 01:44:14 pm »
Maybe some of what he is seeing is capped honey instead of capped brood. Just a thought since he is a beginer, even I am stupid most of the time. Ask him to send you a pic of what he is seeing.

G3
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Offline Davepeg

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Re: Plenty of brood, but no honey
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2009, 05:01:36 pm »
Yeah,  I thought of that also.  I'm hoping he can get a local beekeeper over to take a look.  The man is impossible, no PC, no cell phone so I won't be able to get any pics from him.
Do you agree that we should go down to two boxes if they are only active in half each of the three he has on the hive?
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Offline Bee Happy

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Re: Plenty of brood, but no honey
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2009, 05:18:29 pm »
I'm a noob so take my contribution based in that; if they're building the workforce way up - and they are well ahead of the dearth (assuming a queen may have a sense of when a dearth is coming)they may just start filling heck out of the honey anytime. I do think you should verify that with someone more experienced.
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Offline G3farms

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Re: Plenty of brood, but no honey
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2009, 06:11:46 pm »
Just my thinking but I would go down to the two boxes until the comb is drawn out on all but about one or two frames. My thinking is, there is less empty space for SHB, roaches, ants, moths, etc to be in. I like to keep the hive kind of crowded, seems to be good for house keeping, but when honey flow is on you need to keep a closer check on them to prevent swarming.

G3
those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

 

anything