# Problem with Honey stores



## LeifLiberty (Sep 23, 2014)

What do the other frames look like, i.e. what is one them? How many frames/bars are drawn out? Could you post some pictures?


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## summerbee (Aug 27, 2014)

LeifLiberty said:


> What do the other frames look like, i.e. what is one them? How many frames/bars are drawn out? Could you post some pictures?


It won't be until this weekend that I can get into it, but I will. Thanks!


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## erikebrown (Oct 27, 2014)

summerbee said:


> I have kept bees for many years in Langs. I built my first top bar last year. This will be it's second Winter. Here's what I found today:
> Good queen, Nice brood pattern on 3 frames. Poor honey stores in that every honey frame I checked. Each has only about 1/3 full (or less) capped honey. Interestingly, the capped honey is on the very top of the frame on each frame. There were NO frames with capped honey half full. There is a decent amount of field bee activity as compared to my Langs.
> My mite checks were good in both Spring and Fall. I haven't used chemicals. I live in a rural area. No one sprays.
> My Langstroth hives are doing very well with an abundance of capped stores.
> ...


You didn't mention how many frames of honey you have. It is typical in a TBH to have a band of capped honey on top, the bees move horizontally and can use the bottom of the comb for brood and save the top for honey. So that is normal, just depends on how much honey total.

It looks like you are in Arkansas, so you probably have time to feed if your weather is anything like ours in Virginia.

Erik


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

sounds about right for honey stores. Get a feeder in the hive for a little bit and they will sock it away. I also use sugar bricks if needed. Either on the screened bottom if there is room where the comb doesn't go all the way to the floor or hung from a mesh bag.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

My top bars are in the same condition if that helps. 
They use the lower half of bars for brood. As the dearth progressed they started emptying full bars of honey and laid eggs in the bottom half to save travel-time for the nurses I think.
It's a lot like when the bees empty out the bottom box in a lang. 
I think it's normal.


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## trishbookworm (Jun 25, 2016)

For what it's worth... I'm in OH, people successfully overwinter 1 box of Lang. That's never supposed to happen if you listen to CW. But it is also possible to successfully overwinter 5 frame nucs (like Michael Palmer does), though he puts 10 frames of honey on top (2 boxes of 5 frames). And he's in Vermont. 

So I bet dollars to doughnuts that the balance of bees to stores is the key. Tons of bees, like 10 bars covered with bees/brood, and the rest of the hive as you described is far more dire compared to 5 bars full of bees/brood and the rest of the hive as you described. 

Maybe I'm whistling past the graveyard - my 2nd winter coming up, first with TTBH, and I have 5 solid bars of bees and 7-10 bars of comb/syrup, depending on the hive. Crazy dearth this summer - the hives I wasnt feeding, strong hives, burned through a frame of honey in August. Oops. Guess I should have been feeding. So..... hoping this theory is right! But I will have a sugar board at the end, so they have a chance if they burn through their stores, and if they get to that point, I will take empty comb from the front, fill with 2:1 syrup, and put that next to the brood.... Wyatt Magnum describes that trick in his book. 

If people have a chance... could you post if you have seen smallish populations with proportionally smaller stores (like 2 bars honey to 1 bar bees/brood) survive winters - north or south!


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