My bottom brood box has the side windows for observation. I inspect through the windows at least every other day. As this box is nearly fully drawn with comb I can now only see the outside frames next to the window. One of these outside frames was at one point almost entirely full of capped honey. Now that capped honey is gone and the cells have brood and capped brood.
My question. Did my bees eat that honey? It is midsummer here in Kansas City with a good ongoing nectar Flow. I thought capped honey was stored away for later in the year and for Winter time when there was no nectar source for the bees. Why would they consume capped honey in midsummer? I did add a second brood box on top of the first. Did they move the honey upstairs?
I agree with Ed @Anon, you have entered a nectar dearth, and they used the stores.
The Bee Informed Partnership has a map with hive scale data on it. Unfortunately the only scale in your state has not been updated recently. However, there are two hives north and south of you, and if you allow for them adding equipment, you can see that the overall weight trend is definitely sideways to down. That is to be expected at this time of year. Summer isn’t over for us humans, but the main nectar flow is over for the bees:
I guess I assumed nectar flowed all summer long. Obviously I was wrong. I do know that many late summer and fall flowers have yet to bloom. Asters, goldenrods which can be quite prolific here in the Midwest. Will the bees step up production during those flows?
It all depends and is never the same from year to year:
Too hot or too wet can mean no nectar. Usually if it is flowering and the bees aren’t foraging it’s because there is no nectar.
Flowers do not = nectar.
I’ve been keeping bees 6 or 7 years and this is the first year I’ve seen the Black Locust flow happen. It flowers every year though.
