Patty Consumption and Feeding

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Patty Consumption and Feeding
April 1st, 2010

Below is a series of pictures showing side by side what I found in the hives and how I loaded them up with patties again. I did not shoot pix of the good brood, but just shot examples of problems. I typically found hives has three frames with good sealed brood areas, but the hives which ate less of the patties had less brood. In one case, the hive is fighting AFB and has an occasional cell. I think I'll have to medicate.

One brood picture is presented to show that drones are underway and at the capped stage, so that queen mating will be possible as early as a month from now.

Taking pictures while working bees is a bit awkward, but the Fuji waterproof model I have stands up to the job, even if the pictures are just so-so.

The patties I have added are Global 15% and 4%. I don't see any difference in consumption between the two.

At this point, I have not seen on single pollen load coming in and there is almost zero pollen in the hives. What there is is buried in outside frames.

As you can see, I don't fool around when feeding the patties. I go away for several weeks from time to time and I don't want them to run out. I last fed on March 21st and this is eleven days later. Interesting. Last time I checked on the 21st, it was eleven days after the first feeding. Clearly, for some of the hives I did not get back fast enough or put enough on last time. They had eaten everything I gave them.

A commercial beekeeper asked me today if I figure that, given the price of patties, it pays on a commercial scale operation to feed like I am, since the cost adds up fast. It can amount to $10 per colony on average. Oddly, nobody asks that about syrup, which is not cheap, either. People do not hesitate to pay for Apivar, and it is not cheap.

Labour adds up fast, too. Checking queens in spring is an arduous job that can be eliminated largely by just slapping on patties. As you can see from my pictures, what you see on top is an x-ray picture of what is happening below. the only frames I will bother to pull are the ones in the 20% or so of the hives which are not eating. These hives are3 candidates for new queens as soon as I have some.

My answer was this: If you are buying packages, then you are paying $115 for each starter hive, and the 90% of the original number which survive to summer often not up to pollination standards in time. On the other hand, properly made splits can make the grade, and cost just the price of patties and a queen. Not only that, saving even one hive from winter or spring loss buys a lot of patties.

Each row of pictures below illustrates one hive, before, then after.

Click on images to enlarge