Re: stimulative spring feeding

Depending on your geographic area, or rather, when you expect the primary honey flow,  
SPRING may be too late for
stimulative feeding, if your objective is to build up THE FORAGER age bees.

It takes 40 days from the time an egg is laid until that bee becomes a forager - out 
collecting nectar.  21 gestation +
19 days as a 'house' bee = 40 days.  So if your primary honey flow begins say, April 
1, then the egg for a forager-age
bee must have been laid 40 days prior, about the middle of February.

Also, having enough bees to COVER and incubate that early brood to 91-96 degrees is 
another factor.


"Tim Whittingham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I read in Ted Hooper's book that nobody feeds in the spring to stimulate
> laying because it has been shown to be a waste of time. I read on the
> internet plenty of people feeding in the spring to get the numbers of
> foragers up high in time for the honey flow. What is the truth?
>
> Tim w
>
>