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This is the first time I see Honeybees working the Nasturtium flowers. I'm not sure if they are taking nectar but I can certainly observe them collecting pollen from it.
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Some hives are still empty at the back. Here you can see the last comb from one hive which is totally empty. I guess I will have to continue feeding them with sugar syrup.
Alas, both of my top bar hives have 1 or two completely empty combs in the back as well, and no chance of filling them now. Were the bees anticipating a bigger harvest? I will feed these two hives but I doubt they will survive the long hard New England winter. I am between Boston and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA
ReplyDeleteI try to winter my bees on at least 8 combs but 10 is preferable. Those colonies of mine which have 2 empty combs at the back have only 7-8 combs total, meaning they have only 5-6 combs of stores which can be too little. Hence feeding sugar syrup. In my new locality there is no forage after the end of Jun thanks to mono-crop agriculture. Next year I am totally managing my colonies differently. I cant let them swarm naturally because we have to focus on the only 3 month of nectar flow: April, May and Jun. Those 3 month we have to store enough honey. After that they can either swarm or most likely I will make splits start of July. It seems that one can not practice natural beekeeping in an utterly unnatural environment (Im sad to say).I will be planting lots of bee plants next year but that will not be able to create a nectar flow but still it can at least help with fresh pollen.
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