# Looking ugly out there.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here in Michigan the Golden Rod is so close in most places to open up and let the nectar flow.
I don't care for the stuff at all in the honey we harvest *SO*.
Wanting to try and get it all pulled by the end of next week I fear isn't going to happen. Ive checked 12 of our 80 plus colonies honey supers and not one has 8-9 full frames capped. Many don't even have honey in but a couple of frames.
Peers we will either wait and pull supers with Golden Rod or just pull next week as planed and hope other yards are better than what we have seen so far.
TO HOT TO SOON,NOW TO DRY.

 Al


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Too hot,too dry,nothing for the bees to work at all here in So.MO. Haven't had significant rain since way last June. We get .1 or .2 inches if any...barely settles the dust. We are taking off the extra honey we do have but won't have lots to sell like last year. At least all our colonies are still alive and there is faint hope of goldenrod/fall asters still for them to work. At least we aren't feeding them yet....Heck,farmers haven't even gotten second cutting of hay here! DEE


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Our Spring was way too wet and Summer has been way too hot which means we have very grumpy bees...~lol~...
We've started pulling Supers but because of the Silly Season of swarms we're not seeing a whole lot of capped honey. We 'should' have pulled Supers in July (according to the oldtimers at the Assoc. meetings) but in July there wasn't any honey at all because the Blackberries were late to flower. We'll pull the last Supers this weekend...fingers crossed that I won't have to buy honey from my favorite Commercial beek (you should see his grin when he sees me coming, he LIKES it when I'm out of our own honey)


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

And I pay $150 a pound for goldenrod seed and plant it every chance I get...


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

When the Golden Rod seeds I could just go out with a 5 gallon pail and beat the heads in it and have a pail full in no time at all. That is how I got 10 pounds of sweet clover seed for a field I planted. I also collect Milk Weed pods and plant them in vacant fields around me.
The Milk Weed was one of the bright spots this year.

If I were selling all our honey to a whole saler I could care less what was in there nectar wise. I would even take buck wheat.

 Al


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

We had an almost perfect year here. A couple of weeks of too much rain...but the hot, moist weather has created an absolute JUNGLE and there are more wild flowers blooming here than I've seen in years. My potatoes and tomato plants are STILL blooming. The squash is still sending out runners, and the lettuces are still going strong and not wanting to bolt. 

Goldenrod is, unfortunately, strong and tall...BUT since a lot of folks here are allergic to the stuff, with it being used for honey, it's a selling point. "Using local honey can help with local allergies"  Gotta love advertising spin!


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Wisconsin Ann, read once a long time ago that the true culprit for the allergy sufferers when goldenrod blooms is the ragweed..an all green mostly unnoticed plant. The bright yellow goldenrod gets the blame. It seems the ragweed pollen grains have tiny hooks on them??? Just google "goldenrod as allergy". Even so, local is still best!


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## FrankRichards (Dec 9, 2004)

My bees are all over the ragweed. That pollen must be yummy.

Also, we used to have the goldenrod/aster dark yucky honey issue after Labor Day, but these last few years the big japanese knotweed flow in September has been making some really nice light honey then.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Pulled the last of the Supers, I think we may actually have had a good year despite the Silly Season of Swarms.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Had a week of what many consider beautiful weather here in Michigan for November.
We took advantage of the weather every day in the plus 60F range except Wednesday to check our bees.

Despite feeding syrup for nearly two months I found colonies that didn't have enough food stored to make it till December IMO.

Enough of the messing around when we have a goodly supply of honey ready to go to the wholesaler and not much time to make more syrup and get it on in time for the cold soon to be here.
I loaded pails of honey in the truck Thrusday and all the plus gallon feeders I had on hand and headed to those yards with the colonies I marked as critical.

Place the new top bar feeders first that hold just about two gallons and filled them with honey. Then the modified divison board feeders were next, Two out side frames(one per side) were removed leaving 8 frames were filled with honey. With temps forcast to be in the 60F range till Sunday the girls should be able to get a lot down in the comb before they are clustered all day.
I'll be able to refill the top feeders even when it is in the 40 F range with out doing to much damage to the clusters heat make up. the divison board feeders are another story but I plan on a crash program to build many more top feeders for the next warm spell I wouldf feel OK about opening the hive up in.

It really is ugly looking Here in Michigan. I would bet we end up with one of the highest bee winter die offs in recent history.

 Al


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

I'm thinking I didn't do enough, too. I put quart jar feeders in each hive but now wish I had done the gallon ones as I'm thinking there wasn't enough in the quarts even though I changed them out every 10 days or so. I was just afraid of getting them dripping wet if I made the holes too big or if the hive wasn't level. One of the hives looks really weak, but some of the others still look strong. Now hopefully they have enough food for the winter, too...


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## FrankRichards (Dec 9, 2004)

All of my hives took a lot more syrup than I expected, roughly 30 pounds of sugar each. They've finally slowed down on that, but now they (I think it's only one hive that's desperate) are raiding the dust in the chicken feed. They can fly for a few more days according to the forecast, so I'm thinking a bowl of brewer's yeast at the hive entrance.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here is a link to recipes.
I consider the candy board a great one for this time of year considering the shape the hives are in.

The pollen patties get the girls off to a booming start in the spring. If you use them be prepared to split the hive or capture swarms if you do not get the honey supers on in time.

The one for trac mites isn't so great IMO. Our bees didn't seem to care for them and I finally got rid of the mess off the top bars when I got tired of moving them to do inspections.

http://www.sembabees.org/nonnavpages/recipes.html

 Al


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