Hive Check

We have had a few cool nights this week, with temperatures down into the mid 30’s (deg. F). When today’s temperature got up to about 50 deg. F, I decided to go ahead and check the hive. Going into winter, I had put in 4 lbs of dry sugar onto the inner cover, then covered it with a deep super, and then the outer cover on top of that. Last week, I also placed a boardman feeder with a mason-jar of my homebrew of Honey-Bee-Healthy” (2:1 with essential oils) into the “covering super”. Up until this week, I don’t think they had touched the sugar. The 2:1 with EO’s they were drinking slowly. I suspect it took about a week for them to go through the mason jar.

Today, when I checked the hive, the bees were REALLY on the sugar. I think they’ve eaten about 2 lbs from the looks of what’s left. I refilled the syrup, and closed it back up.

The girls are out flying today, and I observed a few bringing in some pale yellow (more white, really) pollen. I’d bet that the last 2-3 weeks of warm weather, along with lots of pollen coming in over the last month, initiated the queen to start laying eggs for spring. Now more than ever, the bees will be needing protein in the form of pollen.

If it gets warmer this week, I’ll suit up and pull a few frames to do a closer inspection and see how much brood is really there.