Quote Originally Posted by lindsay s View Post
I checked a couple of hives on Monday and noticed plenty of pollen in brood frames. As long as it doesn’t go mouldy it should give them a good start next spring. Somewhere on this forum there was a discussion about how poor the bees were doing due to a lack of pollen and bad weather a year or two ago. I can’t remember when it was but hopefully it won’t be the same next spring.
I work with round 2 litre feeders and they need 5 or 6 fills so my feeding usually lasts a few weeks. To avoid using buckets and spilling syrup everywhere I now use plastic 2 litre bottles. One per hive holds the right amount.
This spring I inspected after a few weeks of cold weather and the nucs had no pollen and hence little open brood. The large colonies were OK as they had probably piled in the pollen the previous autumn which the small colonies were unable to do. Once the weather improved, then the colonies made good. It might be worth thinking about moving a frame of pollen from large well-stocked colonies when making up nucs rather than just giving them syrup.

I am not convinced that the feed patties that have been heavily advertised over recent years are something that should be given as a matter of course.