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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #7519  by RJC
 01 Jun 2020, 07:40
I've read elsewhere (maybe here?) about the amount of pollen in hives this year. One of mine is rammed with pollen and stores, to such an extent that there is very little room for eggs. In fact this weekend I didn't see any at all (nor any queen cells so I don't think the hive has swarmed). The bees are productive (50lbs so far this year), and have two empty supers on now, so plenty of space So, what do I do; leave then to sort it out (but risk colony shrinking as v few eggs), swap out some frames for foundation (I haven't got any drawn brood frames), or a bailey comb change, or something else (but I don't want to do a shook swarm)? Grateful for your thoughts please. NB the colony next to it is fine, with good brood pattern etc, so seems to be specific to this colony (so in doing one of the above should I also swap out the queen? Thanks.
 #7525  by NigelP
 01 Jun 2020, 12:50
I know the feeling....several of mine are like that at the moment. I'm in the process of removing all the newly capped stores in brood frames and will extract it to clear them.
Pollen clogged frames are an issue to which I have yet to find an ideal solution. Abelo sell a pollen picker but the thought of doing several frames cell by cell is not one that appeals to me.
Mick on here has had some success with a hose pipe sprayer and blasting them out....(more details if possible Mick).
I'm about to add pollen traps on some hives to see if will reduce the polen stores inside.
It's this good weather that is causing the problems, as usually they get gaps in the foraging days which gives them time to store the honey in the right place and eat through the pollen...currently like a constant conveyor belt of nectar and pollen pilling in to every hive.

Abelo Pollen picker.
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 #7529  by RJC
 01 Jun 2020, 16:56
I certainly agree that life is too short to use a pollen picker!
 #7541  by AdamD
 02 Jun 2020, 09:07
I've not previously had any concerns about excess pollen and it's generally removed by bees as they need to expand their brood area. However the hives currently have plenty and one in particular is stuffed with it; each comb is 1/2 filled with it apart from the end combs which are full completely. (I nicked one of these for a nuc which has a new queen so the bees have plenty of pollen for brood-rearing, but I have never seen so much). In this polleny hive, the queen is not doing so well; she has been caged and will be removed at the weekend.; I have a shiny new fresh one ready to go in once she comes out. I'll see if the pollen reduces as her young pheromone starts to work and she expands the brood-nest.