Hello, I’m a new hobbyist beekeeper in Northern California and installed a package of bees into a single hive body 2 months ago. The queen is doing her job and we have lots of sealed brood going on. One strange thing is while the bees are ignoring a couple of the outer frames, they are building lots of comb “ globules” on top of and especially hanging from the bottom of the center frames. These on the bottom contain brood (definitely not queen cels). They are a few inches long and wide. Is this normal? Why would they do this and not use the outer frames? Is it time to add another hive body?
Also a quick question about feeding; they are burning through sugar water about a quart a day almost. The honey seems very pale and runny. Too much sugar water? We had an early spring bloom here in March followed by a cold April with a freeze. Not much blooming for them to forage which is why I’ve fed them for so long. Time to stop?
Can’t tell from your description. Any chance you can take a photo, then we can all tell you for sure.
With new hives, they can be slow to use the outer frames. Sometimes you have to move the empty ones toward the center by one position, swapping the adjacent frames out toward the wall. I would only do that if the hive is strong though.
For an answer to that, you need to join a local bee club. Here in coastal San Diego, our nectar flow is dropping off. My bees already have plenty stored, but the colonies are all at least a year old. However, locals are telling me that wild hives are running out of stores and have zero capped honey when they go to do “cut-outs” and bee removals. You can’t get that kind of information without being in contact with local beekeepers.
Thank you for the info Dawn! Other local bee keepers that I contacted this morning I have told me it’s time to add another hive body. There are a lot of bees in my hive! I have also been told that the local blackberries are starting in with a heavy bloom, and we live near a bunch of those, so I am not worried about nectar for the bees throughout the summer.
in spring especially the bees build onto the tops and bottoms of the frames and put drone brood in those places. It’s quite normal- and they tend to stop doing it later in the season.