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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Allen Dick <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:15:48 -0400
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Let me add, too, that the best place to store the extra patties is on the top bars of the brood chamber, close to the brood.  That way the bees can get them if they need them.

I know beekeepers who keep supers back in the honey house during the early flows, saving them for later and waiting to see if the bees will need them.  By the time it is ovious, it is too late IMO.  Bees -- unless they are going nuts on a super flow when the usual rules don't apply -- adjust their activities to suit the space they had last week and often are slow to respond to new space. 

I always put on every super I own for the main flow, except one truckload which I save back to use as replacements when pulling honey.  Later in the season, I am more conservative, but always give them at least one extra box until all hope of a flow has past.

People think they are being conservative and since the bees may not use it all the space, all the food, whatever, they are saving effort and resources.  

The joke is on the beekeeper, though.  The bees 'think' the same way and they often hold back, too as they reach the limits, and nobody will ever know how much honey the beekeeper could have had if only all the supers were on.  

In the same vein, nobody will know how much patty the bees will eat if the bees are always on the verge of running out.  Not only that, letting the bees ruin out of patty is a sure way to sabotage their build up.  They underfeed brood or tear it out if they run short of protein and also scant their own bodies to try to keep going.

I had no intention of feeding patties this early or feeding syrup, either.  Last year I started a month later with patties and did not feed syrup at all, but this year, the bees insisted.  I looked into the hives and what I saw said, "Feed Now!".  

They are now loaded down with patties, I have more on order, and syrup is on the way.  My bosses have spoken.  their wish is my command.

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