# What am I doing wrong? Why can't I get the bees to make honey.



## beesohappy (Jun 3, 2009)

I'm at a loss, it seems I just can't catch a break.

I had big dreams of making orange blossom honey this year and after finding out that I didn't use the queen excluder right I was determined not to make the same mistake again with the bees I have up in the Brentwood CA area. http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...hten-plastic-foundation&p=1256932#post1256932


I reduced the bottom entrance down to 3/8'' and shimmed the top super above the queen excluder giving them a front top entrance and still no honey. Today I was in a yard checking on some of the weaker hives and was shocked because they were booming. I was excited but at the same time a little bummed out at the fact that there wasn't any honey or bees in the supers. As I stood there wondering what to do next I noticed the returning field bees would hit the landing board and if the bottom 3/8'' entrance was busy then they would just walk over to the other weaker hive.

So what am I doing wrong? Please help!

On a side note, I think I even screwed this up. I was reading about using a shook swarm method to get the bees to draw out ross rounds. I took a drawn medium super, put it down and shook all the bees out of a really strong hive into it and put a queen excluder over them and then sat the ross rounds on the queen excluder. Was that right? I'm thinking I should have given them some honey or some brood.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

The way I do a shook swarm, is I shake them into a box of _foundation_, not drawn comb, put on an excluder, then the comb honey box. Shaking them into foundation only gets them into wax drawing mode right away, it forces them to draw comb. Once they are in the mode, they draw comb in the super as well, right away. When I first shake them in, I put the queen in a cage with marshmellow in the candy hole and hang it between two top bars near the center of the bottom box. I do this to insure they do not abscond, and it makes a little longer delay for her laying. I do this at the start of a nectar flow. This way of doing it works out well for me.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

After many years I gave up on the oranges. The bad thing about them is the almonds has brung a 100 billion mouths looking for free lunch before they go back to the midwest. Another guy who buys queens from me says he was skunked also. Does not surprise me. As to why anyone would still do them for honey production for the $ is beyond me...... What a waste of time and money when the other options out there are far superior at that time of year.


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## beesohappy (Jun 3, 2009)

Honey-4-All said:


> After many years I gave up on the oranges. The bad thing about them is the almonds has brung a 100 billion mouths looking for free lunch before they go back to the midwest. Another guy who buys queens from me says he was skunked also. Does not surprise me. As to why anyone would still do them for honey production for the $ is beyond me...... What a waste of time and money when the other options out there are far superior at that time of year.



I had to try. I bought some from another beekeeper and passed it out to family and everyone I gave it to just loved it.


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## beesohappy (Jun 3, 2009)

RayMarler said:


> The way I do a shook swarm, is I shake them into a box of _foundation_, not drawn comb, put on an excluder, then the comb honey box. Shaking them into foundation only gets them into wax drawing mode right away, it forces them to draw comb. Once they are in the mode, they draw comb in the super as well, right away. When I first shake them in, I put the queen in a cage with marshmellow in the candy hole and hang it between two top bars near the center of the bottom box. I do this to insure they do not abscond, and it makes a little longer delay for her laying. I do this at the start of a nectar flow. This way of doing it works out well for me.



Thanks Ray.

If I'm right then we're in a pretty good flow right now. I also think it'll get better as it heats up. Am I right? If we don't get any more rain today then I'll go around and pull all the queen excluders and drop the boxes right on the hives. I'll pull the entrance shims out at the same time. Should I shake those bees out onto foundation and cage the queen at the same time or is it to much and I should just ride it out and see what they do? Will they put pollen in the ross rounds?


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

I shake them and cage the queen at the same time. I don't use Ross Rounds, but I've never had pollen stored in my comb honey. You could try leaving as it is and see how it works. I was just relating how I've done it myself. As far as temps, I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with the temps that citrus blooms produce nectar. Right now, here, it's blackberries that are starting to pop open and mid to high 80's forecast for temps, and got rains last night. This year might be great for blackberry honey with water as the bloom starts and higher temps, there should be a good flow starting.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

The trick is to used drawn frames..... or are they? Why don't you just take the excluder off and see how they do?


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## beesohappy (Jun 3, 2009)

Some are drawn and some are not. I pulled some of the excluders off today and willl do the same with the others tomorrow. A couple of the hives did start using the top entrance so for those I just stuck a 3/8" stick in the front right in the center.


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