Girls wont pullout western's

[Girls wont pullout westerns]

I would like to see what others do to force there girls to draw westerns .
I have 5 hives that the girls wont draw out there westerns , Ive tryed putting the western on the bottom with no luck ive then moved it to the middle ( No Luck )
any other ideal's any one have?
Thay have plugged the top deep with honey and are pushing the queen down , Should I feed the hell out of them and force a lot of newbees to draw wax ?

[HarryVanderpool]

Here's my answer; right or wrong!
Your hive population, and local nectar flow greatly influence comb building.
If your colony swarmed, you took a hit for about 1 month that you will not recover from this year.
The bees are drawing enough wax to seal cells and thats about it. You can feed all you want but they will just store it.
One thing you could try is to compress them into one deep and one western just for fun.
Put all of the brood frames into one deep and shake all of the bees in and store the other deep with frames of feed. Sock some feed to them and see what happens.
Next year, requeen all of your colonies and feed them in the spring and they will draw box after box for you in May and June.
As for the effect that the incoming nectar has, remember this: it takes about 8 lbs of nectar for the bees to secrete one lb of wax.
Thats my two cents.

[drew]

I too have had the same problem starting about 2 weeks ago. Like mentioned if the honey flow is off or starting to slow they don't like to draw out foundation. If you have some drawn comb try to alternate them with the foundation. Or like mentioned force them by taking away a deep. That could also go all wrong, they may plug out the other deep. I have had a few hives plug out the deeps for what reason I don't know. In the Newberg area the flow is starting to drop off blackberries are mostly done.

Time to go grap the blackberry honey and in the bottle it goes yummmmm

[Louise]

I'm having the same problem. I'm wondering whether I should swap frames around and try to bait them up or whether the nectar flow is about done and I should just remove my full boxes and condense down. I'm in Portland OR.
Thanks.

[HarryVanderpool]

The honey flow in much of the Willamette Valley is on a sharp down swing.
Unless you have your bees in pumpkins or some other nectar producing monoculture, its over.
And as for honey production: you don't want the honey that is produced from here on at least in the Salem area. It usually will have a heavy carrot twang.
My 2 cents; forget about drawing foundation.
Instead, think about how you are going to get your bees through the winter.
That means addressing varroa populations, Trecheal mite loads, nosema, chalkbrood, and feed.

[Louise]

Thanks Harry. So do I pull the capped honey now? It seems so early to force the bees into a few boxes. Is there any risk they'll swarm - or is that done too?

[HarryVanderpool]

Hi Louise,
It sure would work well in your favor if your bees could sock away AT LEAST 50 lbs of honey in the top of the brood nest for winter.
My vote would be to pull your supers now and let the bees push her down. That is, unless you are near some unusual nectar sourse, such as pumpkin, etc.
Every year I attend bee meetings across the state in
August and Sept, and hear the same old saw, "They're still bringing it in, I still have supers on".
Then the supers are removed, and the bees are left high and dry for winter.
The fact is that late summer nectar makes rather poor honey, but constitutes good winter feed for the bees.
You just watch; there will be the same old panic this year as always:
"I'ts November and my hive is light as a feather but my bees won't take up feed because it's so cold".
Take a look at your brood nest and try to determine how much feed is present.
If you have a swarm impulse this late in the year, let us know, we'll help you cancel it.
Our focus at this time should be healthy bees for spring 2005.
Honey left for the bees is not wasted. It is a boost for next year's increase and production.
And thats my 2 cents.
Harry