Late summer stimulation feeding

[Mellifera Crofter]

I understand that small amounts of stimulation feeding this time of the year might keep queens laying a bit longer. Would feeding honey - for example, honey cappings and so on - do the same trick?

Kitta

[Jon]

I would say pollen is far more important than honey or sugar syrup in terms of keeping queens laying as long as possible.
Mine usually slow down in August and then really enlarge the brood nest again mid September when the ivy starts.

[darlo]

The ladies appear to be gathering white pollen at my hives. Any idea what that might be?

[GRIZZLY]

The ladies appear to be gathering white pollen at my hives. Any idea what that might be?

Himalayan balsom at this time of year

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Kitta
I would hang on to the cappings for a while yet
The chance of robbing getting started with the smell of honey is high
I might be tempted myself :)

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks for the replies. I won't worry any more about stimulation feeding just now, Jon.
Thanks for the warning, DR. I have one hive that is quite separate from the others. So far that's the only hive I've treated with some cappings. They not only took down all the honey, but they've also taken down most of the wax. They definitely believe in recycling.
Kitta

[The Drone Ranger]

Lol!!

[Bridget]

I had some brood frames full of capped hone and no brood. When I took the cappings off I could see they had a lot of pollen stuffed in there as well. It was quite clogged so decided to crush rather than extract. I now have a lot of cappings plus sticky cloggy pollen mixed amongst the waxy bits. I was thinking that this would be good to keep till early spring and then feed back and i would give the bees the wet frames in September. Is this the right way round?


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[gavin]

I think that its the exposed goodies (spilt syrup, open hives, laid aside comb, harvested supers) that really cause trouble. Minimise that lot, feed inside the hive in the evening, keep entrances small, and you'll be doing good, especially in an environment where Jon's late ivy flow doesn't exist. If you have the Himalayan balsam it will be on now, and that itself will minimise the risk of robbing and may suffice itself. If a little bit of distant heather or the remaining scraps of lowland forage is all they have and your colonies are not yet bursting with bees for the winter, I'd feed now while they can still collect some pollen.

The two things ... no the three things (feel a Spanish inquisition sketch coming on!) ... to get them through winter are ...

- loads of young bees
- those young bees to be raised without much of a Varroa burden
- enough food to see them through (even that can be fixed later with fondant)

There is enough research around which shows that filling a box with bees and stores means high winter survival; half a box is always risky.