Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[rainman1962]

I am using a TBH as outlined by Phil. I have had the bees over 1 week now and I have added 2 more bars as they appear to be pretty active. Until yesterday, I only had one hole open. Should I open a second hole and eventually all three front holes? Of should I force them down to just the one?

Thanks in advance everyone. This is a great resource!

Jeff

[Barbara]

Hi Jeff

If you are still feeding them syrup (I assume this is a package and you are feeding them?) then I would keep it to one hole for now. Once you have stopped feeding and they have had at least one brood cycle from several large sized combs.... approx. 5 weeks.... when the new bees are starting to forage and the population is increasing rapidly.... then you can open up more holes. It's always a good idea to monitor young colonies regularly though to make sure they are not being robbed until they are up to strength.

Regards

Barbara

[jumbleoak]

A traffic jam is fine, but if there's gridlock, then open another.

[rainman1962]

Actually they are from a neighbor's swarm. Does that change anything? I fed them for a couple days but the weather turned warm and there was a flow on so I removed it. Weather got cold again Sat so I put it back in.

[catchercradle]

Unless they are very strong, I would keep it to one hole till you stop feeding.

Also don't forget to mark the holes, "Entance" and "Exit."

[AugustC]

Keep the entrances down to one whilst you are feeding. Syrup in the hive increases the chances of robbing and keeping the entrance small gives them a more defensable space. Put the syrup on in the late afternoon is small amounts so they can clear it overnight is a good way to keep the robbing down too.
Once you've stopped feeding, and provided they look active enough, open up another entrance.

[Barbara]

Great that you were able to start with a swarm rather than a package.

Personally I don't feed swarms at all unless they are very late in the season and don't have enough time to build up and lay down stores for winter.
If there is nectar available and it's not too cold to fly, then I would allow them to build up at their own pace, with the natural forage available.

How long have they been hived and how much comb do they have and are you seeing plenty of pollen going in? If you are seeing clouds of young bees doing orientation flights in front of the hive and foragers flying through them and having to cluster and queue get in, that's when I would open up more entrances.

I guess it depends how often you are able to check on the hive. If it's in your garden you can keep an eye on them and close it down quickly if you open it up too early and then spot a problem. If it's an out apiary and you only get there once a week/fortnight. then it's safer keeping the entrance reduced for longer until they are really strong. Nothing worse than finding they have been robbed out and decimated between one visit and another.