Is there any sweet feed mixed in with the guineas food?

No, there is only the flock raiser crumbles out for the guineas. I finally picked up the pan that has the food, hoping the bees would leave. They seem to roll around in it but I never see them carrying any off. The weather is supposed to turn cold again tomorrow so maybe they will leave. I checked the hive this morning and they were drinking the sugar water I made for them - but, the vast majority is in my barn.

At this time of the year when pollen is not available or very sparse, bees
go into feed, saw dust, bird food etc. looking for substitute.
I would try give them pollen patty until pollen is readily available.
Sky lights can really trap bees, can you cover it, darken for a few weeks
until there is food source outside?
Konrad

I'm a little too old to be climbing up on the top of our tall barn I'm afraid. But, I have designed a brush/broom sort of thing to reach up and sweep them down a couple of times a day.

As for the pollen patty. How do you make it? The only place I know to get pollen is at a health food store and it is usually in very small expensive packets. Is that what you use?

I have made some patties at one time, now I collect pollen during the flow and can feed some back when needed,.. so far didn't.
You can Google for recipe,... below is one.

You'll find out that not too many bees you'll get outside with your broom, a bee vacuum would work better, bees fly back to the light and lots will die.

Konrad

Here is a link that might be useful: Pollen patties

Thank you for the recipe link. I haven't had any more problems for the past few days because we had more snow and they are all back in the hive. I did pretty well with the broom because the bees were pretty sluggish from the cold and I carefully swept them into a bucket and brought them back to the front of the hive where they crawled back in. I did lose some from the cold, but I recaptured quite a lot.

I will make a pollen patty to have on hand when it warms up again. We won't have any wild flowers out here until May, so I will be prepared.

Hello, if you have the makins for a pollen patty now, you can go ahead and make it up now and just install it on top of the frames of your top hive box, flip the inner cover upside down to allow room for the patty. as long as the temp. is in the high thirties or above and you work fast you'll be ok and won't loss to much heat. My bees fed on patties all winter when i lived on the western slope untill this past Feb. If you place the patty/patties over the cluster they can feed on it as needed and their heat will prevent it from freezing. Jim

Good, Oberhasli!
Today I gave a littel pollen for night time snack,... found
out that pollen is coming in from poplar trees, [gray] and willow [yellow].
Don't you have any trees, willow or shrub for pollen source?

Konrad

We have oodles of Ponderosa pine which have their big pollen mess in June/July. It isn't unusual to have snow in early June here. The first wild flower we have is a Pasque flower, kind of like a wild crocus, that blooms late in April or early May,but sometimes gets buried in a late snow storm. Depending on the weather, we will have an abundance of wild flowers in June/July. We also have some Aspen trees, but they don't produce much pollen. It has been a challenge having bees at this altitude as well as having years with drought with few wild flowers. Last year we had a great summer with lots of flowers.

Good!..don't you have Dandelion?
Perhaps you could grow some Pussywillow?

Konrad

Ha, my entire front yard is dandelion and I also have some flowering shrubs in the front that the bees love. But, they won't bloom until mid-June.

I made my pollen patties and installed them yesterday. When I was gathering my supplies at the health food store I bought some local (somewhat local from Northern Colorado) pollen. I was going to put it into the patties, but thought maybe I could be transferring bacteria, etc., and decided not to. I know you use your own pollen, but could that be a problem with outsider pollen. It didn't say it was treated or irradiated to kill bacteria, so I didn't want to take a chance. We have been lucky not to ever get foul brood or VM's and I don't want to jinx that. What do you think?

Good thinking!
Same here, would only use your own pollen, right...you never know what's in somebody else's pollen,.. perfectly fine for human consumption but not for your bees.
When the pollen flow is on early in the season, [or late] you can put a pollen trap in one or two of your strong hives,....I did this first time last year, then you might enjoy to eat some yourself or give it back when needed. This is how mine looked...

{{gwi:428723}}

Konrad

Wow, that's a lot. Is that just from one hive? There were fewer bees in the barn today. I still have them rolling around in the guinea food. I contemplated putting a pan of that food down by my hive, but I don't really want to attract any kind of animal or bird that would eat it. I had heard that guineas would sit on a hive and pick off the bees as they went in and out. But, watching my guineas up in the barn, they just ignore them. Probably a good thing!

Konrad, thanks for all of your help!

>>Wow, that's a lot. Is that just from one hive?This is only about 1 lb. From 2 hives I collected about 15 lb.
You can sell it too, we prefer to eat it ourselves, I put a table spoon
full in my serial in the morning, some people claim they can't be without it.
Are you talking about guineas pigs?
I know, our skunks do that and we have to protect the hive by mounting
carpet tack strips in front of landing board, so when the skunk is trying to
scratch the board, the sharp nails will make them quit.
Konrad

Ha! No, not guinea pigs, guinea hens/fowl. They are natives of Africa and are good for tick, grasshopper and general bug control in a yard/farm. I just love them, but they can be quite noisy. They lay eggs as well and we eat the eggs just like chicken eggs :-) If you google guinea fowl you will see how strange they look. Very hearty birds.

Hm..I can see these guys pick away on bees, looks like fascinating hens, will you ever go back to regular chickens?
I have tons of dead bees in front of hive...girls cleaning out, would your hens or chickens clean this up? I always think
it's a waste when nobody cleans them up, isn't' it a waste of protein? Not even birds eat this....well, only seen one Northern Flicker one's.
What else you keep besides Swiss Oberhasli?...Are you pleased with this Goat?
Sometimes it goes through my mind I could make a large fence
and keep some birds in summer, they could also keep the grass down.....would this work?
I don't live there, so it would have to be a good fence to keep Coyotes out...Perhaps too much of a hasl?

Konrad

We also have chickens, but they are in a confined area, whereas the guineas roam around the yard all day and roost in the barn at night. They are semi-wild, unlike the chickens, guineas can fly (when they remember they can). I don't know if I dumped a bunch of dead bees in the chicken pen if the chickens would eat them. Probably would. If you had chickens or other birds to keep the grass down and they were left unattended, unfortunately they would be gone in days I'm afraid. Hawks, owls, coyotes, foxes, skunks, etc., would slurp them up fairly quickly. I lock my chickens in every night and they do require some management. Even my guineas roost in the protected barn at night and when the weather is bad. If they are left out to roost in trees, they disappear one by one to some predator.

Oberhasli's are wonderful goats. Very personable, great milkers, not too noisy, and very smart. I've raised them for 10 years couldn't imagine having a different breed.

An update on my bees isn't too good. My neighbor with show horses called to complain that there were bees flying around her horse's sweet treat block. She was going to deal with them accordingly. Maybe it is time to try to find someone to take our hive and relocate it elsewhere. We have never had anyone complain about the bees. We all are on at least five acre lots here (we have 10 acres), and I know the horse people have a twenty acre lot. But, I don't know what else to do. We won't have any wildflowers until at least another week, and I have sugar water out for them as well as putting the pollen patties in the hives :-(

Oh..my, first, thank you for these answers on my questions.
You're right, this predator thing.

So, this after 9 years of beekeeping,...have you increased
your number of hives? I don't think you should be without
bees in your yard, perhaps downsizing,.. how many do you have?

Not sure how many bees your neighbor has in the treat block?
If it's not too many and they kill them, it wouldn't be too
detrimental. I don't think they would use poison...they could
harm themselves and the horses.
You can tell them, in a week or two this will most defiantly
stop when bees can collect nectar naturally. Also, you can
try to feed dissolved honey...honey water, they like it more
then sugar water, or take some honey comb from your hives
and set them up against a warm south facing wall where the
sun can warm them up a bit. Or poor som sugar water into empty wax
comb cells, bees are attracted more by the naturally made honey comb.
Good luck,
Konrad

Thanks Konrad. I called my neighbor to find out what the problem was today and she said she left the top off of some horse apple treats and some bees got in. Duh! I did tell her that we aren't the only beekeepers in our area, so who knows whose bees they are. More than likely they are ours, but.... I did tell her that this is only a temporary problem and I did notice that my bees were bringing in some gray looking pollen and a few of the bees had some nice looking yellow balls on their feet. So, the pollen has started, and the bees should be preoccupied with that soon. She also complained that the bees bother her hummingbird feeders. I told her that more than likely it was yellow jackets. But, she is intent on my bees.

We only have one hive and we have had it for 9 years. We have never had any one complain about our bees. I will have to ponder the problem and decide whether we want to just sell the hive to someone else who is starting with bees.:-(

You can also drop a tace mineral block into a water source in between you and the offended neighbor. The bees probably need something that sugar water doesn't give them.
If they can meet their needs closer to home they will.

Only one hive shouldn't be much of a problem...as you said, could
be other bees too. Your yard can support at least 10 hives.
Some hummingbird feeders are bad for bees.
I have one with a bee guard, bees cant reach the syrup.
I wouldn't worry....remember, you're doing the right thing, we need
more people like you, [hobby bee keepers] who keep some bees.

Konrad