Hives no stores?

[John Thompson]

I did a in depth inspection of my hives at the day camp today. The 1 layens hives is doing well today, but not one single langstroth has done anything either second deep, nor do they have ANY stores at all! Zero, zip. Lots of brood, lots of bees, no deaders. Even the Lloyd st hive is like that. 

Any thoughts? The only variable I see is that the farmer planted corn this year, but I'm not seeing a connection. Ragweed is in full bloom around them. I can try to feed them, but I'd like to know what's going on! 

[Kyle Curran]

We have been in a dearth since the first week in July and now the bees are going backwards eating into the stored supers. Hives with huge populations aren’t even finding any nectar because it hasn’t been available. Time to remove supers and feed. Commercial producers reporting one of the worst honey yields in 30 years in our area. Too much rain this year led to a failed clover crop.

On Sun, Aug 31, 2025 at 11:48 AM John Thompson <johntho...@gmail.com> wrote:

I did a in depth inspection of my hives at the day camp today. The 1 layens hives is doing well today, but not one single langstroth has done anything either second deep, nor do they have ANY stores at all! Zero, zip. Lots of brood, lots of bees, no deaders. Even the Lloyd st hive is like that. 

Any thoughts? The only variable I see is that the farmer planted corn this year, but I'm not seeing a connection. Ragweed is in full bloom around them. I can try to feed them, but I'd like to know what's going on! 

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[Jeanne Hansen]

I'm so sorry your bees have no stores.  Perhaps I had better inspect my own hives.

There is a big connection between fields of corn, and little  honey.  Corn is actually a  kind of grass, and is wind pollinated, meaning corn does not provide pollen or nectar for bees.  Ragweed is likewise wind-pollinated.

JEANNE

On Sun, Aug 31, 2025 at 11:48 AM John Thompson <johntho...@gmail.com> wrote:

I did a in depth inspection of my hives at the day camp today. The 1 layens hives is doing well today, but not one single langstroth has done anything either second deep, nor do they have ANY stores at all! Zero, zip. Lots of brood, lots of bees, no deaders. Even the Lloyd st hive is like that. 

Any thoughts? The only variable I see is that the farmer planted corn this year, but I'm not seeing a connection. Ragweed is in full bloom around them. I can try to feed them, but I'd like to know what's going on! 

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Jeanne Hansen

824 Jacobson Ave

Madison,WI

608-244-5094

[Koelsch]

This has been my experience as well- two apiaries in Lincoln county had lower than avg yields and my apiary in Rio is lowest I’ve ever seen- some hives had zero stores. 

Notably my hives around Poynette did fine, but they have access to diverse wetland flora. 

A wet summer can be devastating for honey yields 

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[Jack Rademacher]

I agree with feeding. I took most of my supers off and am feeding trying to prepare them for winter. Honey supers were filling nicely at the beginning of July but most were completely empty when I removed them. Deeps were quite light also. I’ve already gone through over 100 lbs of sugar and need to buy more. 

On Sun, Aug 31, 2025 at 1:03 PM Kyle Curran <kylep...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Greg V]

As of late July, I noticed something I have never seen before - the bumblebees went crazy when I set out the old honey/wax residue (a good way to monitor the forage status).

Even though there was plenty of bloom at the time seemingly - my backyard resident bumblebees jumped at the residue like hungry wolves.

That right there was a good indicator of things not going well.

It was so unusual to me - I took a bunch of pictures.

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[Karl Patzer]

Very interesting. We have tons of flowers and almost all visited daily by bumblebee and not many honeybees. Have see more hummingbirds on our flowers than honeybees

Usually our bees fly off farther but we see more locally than we have this year. Have also watched the bumblebee enter our hive, but always chased out quickly.

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[marvin]

A comment re Jeanne's comment on corn.  You're correct in that corn is wind pollinated.  But corn pollen is a popular source of pollen for bees.  I've noticed this particularly with sweet corn.  They really hammer it.  I've never seen honey bees go to field corn however, although it is reported that bees collect field corn pollen as well.  It may be that there is so much field corn that bee foraging is imperceptible.  It is not thought that there is any nectar harvesting from corn, although water from guttation or pooling in the whorls may be collected.  

[Joseph Bessetti]

Agreed. I see them working the pollen on my sweet corn every year.  It’s not very high in protein, and provides zero nectar, so I usually take it as a sign that food is scarce.

Joe

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 5, 2025, at 10:14 PM, marvin <marvin...@gmail.com> wrote:

A comment re Jeanne's comment on corn.  You're correct in that corn is wind pollinated.  But corn pollen is a popular source of pollen for bees.  I've noticed this particularly with sweet corn.  They really hammer it.  I've never seen honey bees go to field corn however, although it is reported that bees collect field corn pollen as well.  It may be that there is so much field corn that bee foraging is imperceptible.  It is not thought that there is any nectar harvesting from corn, although water from guttation or pooling in the whorls may be collected.  

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[marvin]

I actually think the other way:  They nail sweet corn hard every year, and at the time of year when it pollinates there is a multitude of things also pollinating and providing nectar.  I don't think they feed on it out of desperation.  So maybe there's something else special about sweet corn pollen that they find beneficial.  It's kind of like the observation that you can provide bees fresh water, but they'll still prefer to go into the puddles in the hog pen for water.  It may be those little under analyzed nutritional additives that make all the difference in a healthy hive.  It kind of gets into the discussion of whether you should provide pollen supplements (the beekeeper chooses the menu), or you let the bees do the selecting and balancing of natural sources.  I opt for the bees every time.