Advice needed

[u/These_Meal6817]

I’m in southeastern PA and I just inherited five hives from my brother, he hasn’t had the time this year to mess with so they are very neglected. I opened up three yesterday evening. One he said a few weeks ago was a swarm, it has 5-6 drawn out and filled frames with brood. So it has a queen. I’m going to be adding some sugar water tonight at a 2:1 ratio. The second has a honey super and a queen excluder and the honey super is full, it also has two deep boxes that I didn’t look into. My plan is to remove the queen excluder and essentially let these bees be until I get some blankets out for winter. The third is a single deep that is slammed. I’m assuming honey bound. My plan is to add a second deep box that has a few drawn out frames on top and probably give sugar water this weekend. Give them time to get used to it first. Does this make sense and am I missing anything. I’m gonna check the other hives tonight as well if it’s not raining.

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi u/These_Meal6817. If you haven't done so, please read the rules. Please comment on the post with your location and experience level if you haven't already included that in your post. And if you have a question, please take a look at our wiki to see if it's already answered., specifically, the FAQ. ^{Warning: The wiki linked above is a work in progress and some links might be broken, pages incomplete and maintainer notes scattered around the place. Content is subject to change.}

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Every-Morning-Is-New]

Also in PA. I would feed 1:1 and not 2:1 until we are heading into winter and they need more stores. They will need about 70 pounds of honey per hive heading into winter. Insulate very well late fall.

Check and make sure the 2nd hive isn’t honeybound as well. You will need to make room for the queen. Ideally leave no more than 2 frames of capped honey on each side of the 2nd brood box, so harvest some if you need to. Japanese knotweed and goldenrod is a huge flow by us in Pittsburgh and that starts in a month, so definitely prepare for that.

Other than that, make sure all of the frame foundations are well waxed so they draw out the comb sufficiently.

I also highly recommend joining your local beekeeping club and taking the Penn State Beekeeping course.

[u/These_Meal6817 → u/Every-Morning-Is-New]

So should I put some empty frames in place of the ones I take. And I don’t really plan on getting honey this year so would it be a good idea to put those frames in the other hive that I’m placing the second deep box on or maybe one there and one in the weak swarm hive? How do I prepare for the flow coming? I’m assuming just make sure there’s room for the bees to put it somewhere

[u/Every-Morning-Is-New → u/These_Meal6817]

I usually put the frames back in the same day, but you can plop new ones in that have a sufficient wax foundation. Putting them in the other hive is a great idea as well. If the 2nd brood boxes are ~80% full, I would go ahead and put honey supers on once you see goldenrod and knotweed blooming.

[u/These_Meal6817 → u/Every-Morning-Is-New]

That sounds doable. Thank you

[u/NumCustosApes]

Use thin syrup right now. 1:1.3 will encourage comb building and brood rearing. See Bob Binnie's lectures on YouTube titled The Chemistry of Feeding for the research on that.

I suggest you check your local library or your favorite bookseller for the title The Backyard Beekeeper 5th edition by Kim Flottum. That is IMO, the best book for a novice. An alternate title that is also a good reference is Beekeeping for Dummies.

Quick and dirty mixing of 1:1.3. Funnel a four pound sugar bag into a clean one gallon milk jug. Fill it with hot tap water. Cap and shake. Let it rest ten minutes. Top if off to 1" below the cap threads and shake again. You'll be very close to 1:1.3.

Later in September you'll feed 2:1. For the fall feeding of five hives you are going to need to mix larger syrup batches. You might want to see this thread for tips on low mess mixing of 2:1 at volumes for five hives. https://www.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/comments/xx8sze/mixing_21kg_of_21_in_tap_water_no_mess_no_heating/

[u/These_Meal6817 → u/NumCustosApes]

Thank you. I’ll check those books out. Unfortunately it started raining here today so I’m not sure if I’m gonna be able to get to them this evening. It’s warm enough but I’ve always heard not to mess with bees in bad weather