Comings and Goings.......

[wharfrat]

Man my bees are moving this morning...by 7am, there appeared to be an exchange rate of approx 300 bees per minute!

So that brings me to questions for you experienced guys.....

I know that the exchange rate is largely a function of colony size...I wonder how many bees I have in that hive?

Is the exchange rate also dependent on the flow?? Do you think they are currently on a real pig out mission??
(I checked my honey supers last week...and was actually thinking the flow was light?)

Will I see a reduction in the exchange rate during a real dearth of resources??

If the bees are traveling some distance from the hive to forage....is there a general of average time for each of their missions??

Does it take longer for them to collect pollen or nectar??

I love this board....thanks.

[JP]

Have your supers ready to go in a super flow! Stay ahead of them.


...JP

[Joelel]

Man my bees are moving this morning...by 7am, there appeared to be an exchange rate of approx 300 bees per minute!

So that brings me to questions for you experienced guys.....

I know that the exchange rate is largely a function of colony size...I wonder how many bees I have in that hive?

Is the exchange rate also dependent on the flow?? Do you think they are currently on a real pig out mission??
(I checked my honey supers last week...and was actually thinking the flow was light?)

Will I see a reduction in the exchange rate during a real dearth of resources??

If the bees are traveling some distance from the hive to forage....is there a general of average time for each of their missions??

Does it take longer for them to collect pollen or nectar??

I love this board....thanks.

You best look to see if you have any room in there,if not add a super. You can have 60 to 80 thousand bees in a hive. A strong hive will have a bee coming and going each second.That's 120. You need two lg.bodies and a super,maybe two supers or three if two are full.

[wharfrat]

I'm tellin ya....at peak exchange....300 bees per minute...that's 18000 exchanges per hour!! 5 bees leaving and 5 bees coming home...every second... they are quite busy.

My single hive is 2 extremely healthy looking medium supers as the brood area... I should go in again soon..but I recently added a medium super with wax foundation directly above it...the queen can expand up if she needs too...but I hope they are filling it with honey. above that one which was new a week ago...I have one more medium that is maybe 50%full of capped honey..

I think the massive activity right now could be related to a strong abelia bloom that I am looking for information on..and created another post...

Anyway, I was starting to think that I would be lucky to pull any honey for myself this year...I started the hive in June last year and didn't take any.. With the way the girls are rocking..I have become much more positive today! What is the quickest anyone has ever had an undrawn medium filled??

Thanks!

[JP]

I've had ten frame mediums drawn, filled and capped in five days.


...JP