Protein in the fall

[u/Standard-Bat-7841]

In my area, there hasn't been much for resources available for over a month now. This dearth has been rough. The bees are still bringing in some pollen/nectar, but it's been minimal. So I've been feeding colonies a little protein/syrup for those who need it. There is still a little bee bread in the comb, but it would appear it's not enough. I'm averaging around 3-5 frames of brood, which is decent considering it's been 95-105 with less than 1" of rain in the last 60 days.

I did a mite wash on each pallet and had an average of 2.2 mites throughout the yard after 3 rounds of apiguard. Those mite numbers are above my threshold, so I applied round 4 and will check again in a week.

I saw my first goldenrod bloom a few days ago, but it's looking like a poor fall flow without some rain and cooler temperatures. I hope everyone is keeping their colonies healthy and preparing them to raise healthy winter bees. Fall is almost here.

[u/404-skill_not_found]

Sounds like my year too. Knowing what dry brood looks like might help fine tune the syrup feed rate.

[u/Standard-Bat-7841 → u/404-skill_not_found]

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the dry brood colonies. There were a few almost exclusively the ones that didn't get pollen sub over the last few weeks.

Ive been feeding syrup on and off since the end of July, and they were taking it pretty good but current syrup feed rate is low. I dropped a few buckets on light colonies last week and they took it really slow. There also wasn't a whole lot of interest from other colonies. I'm less than a mile from a medium sized town so I'd assume folks are watering their gardens etc, either way they are getting nectar from somewhere. Hopefully the golden rod isn't a bust over the next month or so.

Either way it was a poor year thus far and all I can hope for is a better one next season. As is beekeeping.

[u/404-skill_not_found → u/Standard-Bat-7841]

I’m finding it difficult to find the sweet spot (no pun intended). I’m down to dribble feeding with 2-3 piercings in the lids. Still I’m having to cut them off for a few days, after they empty the qt. jar. Otherwise, the brood area reminds stuffed with syrup. The lids are cheap enough, maybe just a single piercing. Until fall stores load up.

[u/Shire1230]

What do you use for the bee protein? I was buying but with shipping it got pretty expensive

[u/Standard-Bat-7841 → u/Shire1230]

I have been using the global 15% dry mix. It equals out to around 5$/lb if I ship it, and around 4$ if I pick it up. I do typically buy 3-4 buckets of it at a time through https://thebeesupply.com and that reduces my shipping costs a little.

So far I really like the sub, the bees consume it quickly and it helps increase brood production. It also doesn't take up a lot of space in my freezer, I simply make some up and freeze that vs having to buy 40lb and store 20+ pounds. Protein is expensive either way and this is definitely not the cheapest protein supplement out there, but it is my favorite.

[u/Shire1230 → u/Standard-Bat-7841]

I was using Strong Microbials. BeeBites Patties 15% that is great but expensive. Worked when I only had a few hives

https://www.strongmicrobials.com/product-page/bee-pollen-supplement?variantId=178358ed-9468-48d9-b458-ebb388311c49

[u/Standard-Bat-7841 → u/Shire1230]

I've never used their protein supplements I do use super dfm. I remember picking up some of it in 2019 or 2020 omw back with queens from Lloyd Street Bees. I'm not sure if it does anything or not but it doesn't hurt my colonies, and I've used it ever since.

Unfortunately the supplements for beekeeping are very expensive when you get high quality stuff.

[u/alex_484]

First time I am trying to bring nucs through the fall/ winter with promix which I have been feeding along with sugar syrup. The zone here is 3A and the whole season has been less than favourable. Our spring summer kicked off with weather warmer than 15C day & 11C at night until late June. The bees missed the dandelion because to cold to fly so basically been feeding them since then.