Hive Report for Thursday 13th
I only had a few minutes to visit one apiary site. I was excited and hoped that all the colonies were strong and ready for what i had for them...fondant frames and honey frames. I got there and began working and the first hive was aggravated and i didnt have gloves on and no smoker. So i got few stings but was able to put in a fondant frame and a honey frame. I found two hives that were empty. no stores, no brood, no bees-just nothing. The last time i saw bees in there was three weeks ago. It had two honey supers on it. I will have to do take it apart soon to see what possibly happened to it. Originally was used for pollination this spring at Springs Farm. Time ran short and was unable to do any more work.
During these colder temps bees are clustering and not interested in sugar syrup so fondant could save a colony or honey is what they prefer. This is a critical time as well as January and February. While bees are in the cluster they are over top of a section of honey frame and they use an incredible amount of energy so they are consuming lots of honey. There could be 10-20 thousand bees and that is a lot of honey needed to keep bees alive. Only one bee is not eating the honey and that is the Queen she is only fed Royal Jelly her entire life. So if they are consuming lots of honey they could easily go thru a frame of honey with in days and run out before they could produce more. If they don't have food they can starve....Yikes!
Sally and I worked all day on making fondant frames to add to hives that need food supplement. One of our good beekeeper friends lost her hives and had some leftover honey frames. She wanted us to have them so instead of it going to waste.
During my trip i got 10 stings. I was bending over and took one in the but cheek. i really hate that.
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