Bee's Last Supper

It was a warm day and tomorrow and Saturday it is supposed to rain. I have already fed all my hives twice, except for the hive at Clarence Brown's. Today after work, I ate a quick bite and then Kathy and I headed over to Clarence's. My job was doing the feeding. Her job was taking photos.

The bees at Clarence's place have always been very gentle, so I didn't bother putting on my veil or gloves. I didn't even use the smoker.

This hive was one that was split from my first hive in April. The hive had grown too large and was about to swarm. It was my first experience at splitting. Both hives ended up being a little weaker than I would like, but I guess that's what happens when you do a split. I moved the hive to Clarence's place in June.

What is interesting about this hive is that there have always been other critters inside. Today, on top of the inner cover there were cockroaches and a spider. This hive has always had small hive beetles, too. I'm not sure how much these other bugs weaken the hive. Clarence reported during the summer that they were very busy. They did store some honey, but not enough to make it through the winter.

To feed them, I used some sugar from food storage. The label said 1999. It had lumped together. I chopped it apart with a knife. Probably not the sugar we would eat, but the bees don't seem to mind at all. A gallon of sugar to a half gallon of water, heated, not boiled, until it formed a syrup. The yellow box is a top feeder. It has two wells that can contain the syrup and each has a wooden float that the bees can walk on so they don't drown.

The bees take the syrup into the hive and make it into honey. The last I checked they had some unfilled comb in the blue box, but they may have to make some more on some of the frames where they hadn't drawn comb yet. (The white box is the brood box where the queen lays eggs.)

I hope it holds them. There won't be many foraging days left and they'll be stuck in the hive until spring. I think they should have sufficient for their need now.