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Date: | Mon, 27 Mar 2006 22:57:03 -0500 |
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I make my own pollen substitute and place it in the beeyard with a bunch of
popsicle sticks or little branches for the bees to work from. As the stuff
is quite loose, the bees end up mostly covered with it. They return to the
hive shamelessly ungroomed. Perhaps a neighboring beekeep is feeding
similarly.
The bees seem to feed on the loose powder better than patties when I
place them side by side. Since they are also homemade, the bees simply may
not care for my cooking.
Had great success overwintering in poly nucs from Betterbee. Ten of eleven
survive, and are into accelerating brood rearing. Most of these were not
very large. they consumed very little stores. I am thinking there are
advantages to raising late-season queens, overwintering small colonies in
these nucs, and having a vigorous, proofed queen to take things through the
major nectar flows.
By the way, By "late-season" I mean mid August to early September. Without
sufficient drone presence, poor mating success pretty much trumps any good
genetic traits, doesn't it?
Also, I do believe well-mated queens can be counted on later than early
September. As Bob Harrison says "all beekeeping is local." I'll add that
every year is different, and all good farmers intimately understand their
environs.
May all of us have a great beekeeping year
Tim.
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