With the previous blog I told you how I had placed honey supers on my hives. Dreams of numerous, full honey jars danced in my head. It seemed like a good plan. I just couldn't wait to spread my own honey on my morning toast. These fantasies came crashing down when I attended a BANV meeting set up by Pat Haskell that was designed to check on the neophytes and our progress to date with the winged wonders. During the meeting I learned several things that had me re-thinking my honey strategy.
For one thing, I was under the impression that the nectar in our area kept up a bountiful flow until the end of July. Not so. Turns out that the spring nectar season pretty much dies out completely by the middle of June. Several weeks back, I had removed the hive-top feeders because the girls were bringing in scads of pollen and presumably lots of nectar. They had stopped taking the syrup so off came the feeders. Lately I had noticed far fewer bees returning to the hive with full pollen baskets. On inspecting the hives on Friday, I noticed that the honey supers were being ignored. Not one fleck of beeswax had been added to my foundation. You would have thought the queen excluder was electrified.
In the meeting, we were told that we needed to add pollen patties and feeders onto our hives and remove the queen excluders. These measures would cause the queen to keep laying eggs and the workers to draw out comb in the honey supers. It was strongly emphasized that our mission this first year was to get the bees to produce as much drawn out comb as possible in preparation for next year's nectar flows. The lost honey this year would be compensated for by pounds and pounds of the stuff next year. Well, being a poor, working guy, I'm familiar with the concept of delayed gratification and so I agreed to follow the program. I removed the exluders, whipped up a batch of sugar syrup, brought out a couple of chunks of pollen patty and went about setting things right for next year. Oh well.
As I said, this took place on Friday. On Saturday, I peeked hopefully under the top cover to see if the bees had found the syrup. Maybe a half dozen had made their way up there, no more. On the Georgia girls hive, I had always had trouble sealing the feeder off from opportunistic little ants. Briefly, when the feeders were on last, I had accidently arranged my heavy landscaping rocks in just the right way that the top cover pushed down enough to keep them out. I have not rediscovered that particular rock arrangement since, because the little pests have been having a grand feast while, at the same time, sacrificing untold numbers to drowning in the process. In the unending exercise trying to thwart them, I shift my rocks around trying to find just the right position. I did it once, I can do it again, right? If I could only be certain I had found the perfect configuration, I would spray paint their positions like they do murder victims, but to be sure it worked, I have to remove the rocks to see if there are any ants inside, never to find that "perfect" position again! By such means do men lose their minds. Obviously, I have a warped top cover and the ultimate fix, I guess, will be to get a new one. The other hive, possessor of an old, seen-better-days top cover, has never allowed the first ant to pass through to the syrup. Go figure.
Anyway, I digress. On checking the feeders today, I was amazed to discover that the bees had almost drained the gallon of syrup I had put in each feeder! The screened off feeding area was packed with bees and you could see many of them just slurping it up with their long tongues. I can only imagine the effect this turn of events is having on the honey super below the feeder. I didn't check them today, but considering that on last check the brood boxes were fully invested with brood and food, there isn't anywhere else for all that syrup to wind up but in the supers as comb I would think. I just can't get over how fast that syrup was consumed. The first feeder I checked was the "ant" feeder, so at first I thought the ants had carried off most of it. But on checking the second, ant-free feeder, it too was nearly drained. In three days!? Amazing.
So, in conclusion, for all of you that I, with some cockiness, announced a forthcoming batch of honey this season...I was just kidding! Ha! Ha! But stick with me here. As the Brooklyn Dodgers used to say..."Wait til next year!"
P.S. One girl took exception to the foregoing proceedings, and so...
Sting tally...7
For one thing, I was under the impression that the nectar in our area kept up a bountiful flow until the end of July. Not so. Turns out that the spring nectar season pretty much dies out completely by the middle of June. Several weeks back, I had removed the hive-top feeders because the girls were bringing in scads of pollen and presumably lots of nectar. They had stopped taking the syrup so off came the feeders. Lately I had noticed far fewer bees returning to the hive with full pollen baskets. On inspecting the hives on Friday, I noticed that the honey supers were being ignored. Not one fleck of beeswax had been added to my foundation. You would have thought the queen excluder was electrified.
In the meeting, we were told that we needed to add pollen patties and feeders onto our hives and remove the queen excluders. These measures would cause the queen to keep laying eggs and the workers to draw out comb in the honey supers. It was strongly emphasized that our mission this first year was to get the bees to produce as much drawn out comb as possible in preparation for next year's nectar flows. The lost honey this year would be compensated for by pounds and pounds of the stuff next year. Well, being a poor, working guy, I'm familiar with the concept of delayed gratification and so I agreed to follow the program. I removed the exluders, whipped up a batch of sugar syrup, brought out a couple of chunks of pollen patty and went about setting things right for next year. Oh well.
As I said, this took place on Friday. On Saturday, I peeked hopefully under the top cover to see if the bees had found the syrup. Maybe a half dozen had made their way up there, no more. On the Georgia girls hive, I had always had trouble sealing the feeder off from opportunistic little ants. Briefly, when the feeders were on last, I had accidently arranged my heavy landscaping rocks in just the right way that the top cover pushed down enough to keep them out. I have not rediscovered that particular rock arrangement since, because the little pests have been having a grand feast while, at the same time, sacrificing untold numbers to drowning in the process. In the unending exercise trying to thwart them, I shift my rocks around trying to find just the right position. I did it once, I can do it again, right? If I could only be certain I had found the perfect configuration, I would spray paint their positions like they do murder victims, but to be sure it worked, I have to remove the rocks to see if there are any ants inside, never to find that "perfect" position again! By such means do men lose their minds. Obviously, I have a warped top cover and the ultimate fix, I guess, will be to get a new one. The other hive, possessor of an old, seen-better-days top cover, has never allowed the first ant to pass through to the syrup. Go figure.
Anyway, I digress. On checking the feeders today, I was amazed to discover that the bees had almost drained the gallon of syrup I had put in each feeder! The screened off feeding area was packed with bees and you could see many of them just slurping it up with their long tongues. I can only imagine the effect this turn of events is having on the honey super below the feeder. I didn't check them today, but considering that on last check the brood boxes were fully invested with brood and food, there isn't anywhere else for all that syrup to wind up but in the supers as comb I would think. I just can't get over how fast that syrup was consumed. The first feeder I checked was the "ant" feeder, so at first I thought the ants had carried off most of it. But on checking the second, ant-free feeder, it too was nearly drained. In three days!? Amazing.
So, in conclusion, for all of you that I, with some cockiness, announced a forthcoming batch of honey this season...I was just kidding! Ha! Ha! But stick with me here. As the Brooklyn Dodgers used to say..."Wait til next year!"
P.S. One girl took exception to the foregoing proceedings, and so...
Sting tally...7
1 comment:
atleast i'm not so scared of honey bees anymore. you've cured me!! ;)
Love you!
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