I just have one of those dumb frantic new keeper questions.
I installed my first nuc around 10 days ago. There is some good activity with foragers comming back with pollon, but not all of them. There dosen’t appear to be any more foraging than the first day after they were installed.
So, i’m a little concerned about brood and plan on doing an inspection today to see if everything is going OK inside the hive, so hopefully that is all good.
We have had a weather forcast today that there is likley to be rain in Sydney for the next week. My collony is still quite small and, hopfully, busily raising brood, but with five to seven days of rain comming on should I be looking at feeding a pollon supliment during this “no fly” period?
Depending on the number of frames in your nucleus, they should be fine for up to 2 weeks. I wouldn’t worry just yet, unless the wet weather lasts a lot longer than expected.
Every inspection will set them back by a couple of days too, and inspecting in cold weather is always risky, unless you know what you are doing and have a very good reason for it.
Thanks Dawn,
I did an inspection this afternoon in pretty good weather. The colony actually seems to be going along well, at least from my inexperianced eyes. The Nuc was five frames and I have put them into a ten frame box. They have drawn pretty much full comb on two new foundationless frames which are now showing capped honey, some brood, nectar and pollen… Two others are underway with some drawn comb and one is untouched. I’m pretty pleased overall. Some pollen and nectar, good levels of brood on the centre frames and the population dose seem to have increased a reasonable amount.
I’m satified that they have enough resourses for the next week or so so not planning to suppliment at the moment. I’d much rather leave them to do thier thing if I can.
Thanks again fro your reply and support of a nervous newbie.
Hi all, here in Canberra (and most of the southeast) we are experiencing the wettest spring in years. My question relates to whether we should be feeding our bees during this time. With the constant wet, the bees are still foraging but there is limited resources such as pollen on flowers because the rain has washed the pollen away. I have 2 hives (both flow hives) and the supers are on. Can you still feed with a top feeder on top of the flow frames? Or is this a no no? Would be interested to see if other beeks are having to feed at the moment? Thanks in advance.
There is no need to feed bees during a week of rain, as long as the bees have honey stores in the hive. The bees store honey with events like this in mind.
If your honey frames are close to empty, as well as very little honey in the arcs above the brood, then you should feed them.
