Checked and fed today

[Vance G]

After close to -40 a week ago it was close to thawing today and is supposed to be forty this weekend.  I never got the MC sugar on my bees earlier that I planned, so todays relatively windless day gave me an opportunity.

 Since in many colonies the bees tend to cluster in the feeder rim, I could not just pour sugar on Newspaper.  A new trick that someone showed me this fall came in useful.  If you put ten pounds of sugar into a large mixing bowl and add a pint of water, It can be mixed into a sludge and molded in a cake pan or the plasticized paper soup bowls that I buy at Sams.  I hadn't got them made and dried earlier so I made them up and carefully turned them over on the top bars in the hives I wanted to supplement.  They only came apart in a minor way and I think the bees might appreciate a little moisture in them when consuming them.  I put three bowls in each hive and that is roughly four pounds.  That will suppliment them at any rate til some day in January when the Chinook wind brings us back up to flying weather and I can replenish.  I have lost two out of 25.  They were not two I was expecting to lose.  The nucs that didn't take off as well as I had wished are all looking better than they did in early October. 

[S.M.N.Bee]

Wish that Chinook wind would blow here in Minnesota. Some winters we don't get to look at the bees until late February.

I don't see an issue with a little moisture in the sugar either. I mix mine to the consistency of peanut butter before placing it on the inner cover.

John

[GSF]

Vance, this is all new to me. It was 27 this morning with a heavy frost, around 50 mid day - and I thought my bees were being robbed. (package last June) So I went over there to check them out and it was a combination of some things. Orientation for one, but the bees were bringing in a ton of pollen! We've had several nights in the twenties and our first frost was about a month ago, plus we've had plenty of frosts since then. There shouldn't be any pollen anywhere. I studied them for a while and didn't see any fighting. I fed them two quarts and a pint about two weeks ago. Their stores were in very good shape last October. Now (rookie fever) I'm thinking - if this keeps up they'll swarm. I want to slip them another quart or two but now I don't know.