Fall feeding

75 degrees, not humid, bright and sunny. A beautiful day with a little breeze, but not bad. Visual inspection showed no sign of disease or mites.

My wife's family all came out to the mountain Sunday October 4th. We had a cookout, played some games (check out hillbilly golf, aka ladder golf), and I did a top to bottom hive check on both hives. Michele was in with me and our 7 year old nephew helped with Hive 1. I took off the outer cover, pulled off the shim and the Ziploc feed bag, and inspected several frames. The top hive body was pretty much full of honey with a bit of brood. The outside frames were less filled, especially on the outside of the frames. The second hive body had quite a bit of honey. The top corners of the frames were filled with more honey in the center frames than the outside frames. There was still quite a bit of brood activity going on in this body. The bottom hive body was packed with pollen! Holy cow there was a lot of pollen in there. There was a little honey here an there and a small amount of brood. It looks like the queen is making a big circle in the middle of the hive concentrating on the middle hive body but eventually going up and down into the other 2. I am a little concerned about the amount of stored honey, but not at all with the pollen stores. And, watching them come and go they are still packing in the pollen. It has been really dry here the last month so maybe this year is a better pollen than nectar year. Anyway, I will feed them through October to try and build some honey stores. I brought 2:1 (sugar:water) syrup with me. 2:1 is supposed to spur them into storing it, 1:1 we use in the spring to spur brood production. So when everything is put back together I checked the Ziploc bag for leaks, filled it and put the top back on. As I was going along I checked the comb for signs of disease. None was found. I also check a bunch of bees as I go and saw no mites or obvious diseased bees. My nephew was very helpful and this time held a frame to see it really up close.

2 nieces (10 and 12) also wanted to get in on the act so we let them suite up for Hive 2. The 10 year old was a little cautious about getting in very close. The other was pretty much ready to jump in. We did the same procedure on Hive 2 and again I saw no mites or sign of disease on either the bees or comb. It is interesting that Hive 2 at the beginning had more dead bees in the package and always seemed to be just a little behind Hive 1. It was about a half frame behind being drawn out. The activity has always been a bit less. It got harder and harder to see as the summer went on and now I think Hive 2 is actually a little stronger with a little more stored honey. I don't think it is enough to make a difference but it is interesting to see how it has changed over the summer. Maybe because I always start on Hive 1 and make my mistakes there (like not noticing the Ziploc was leaking)? I started this way for two reasons: Hive 1 is uphill and it seemed more natural to work top to bottom but more importantly at the beginning Hive 1 seemed a little stronger so I figured when I did that one first they would be getting reorganized as I worked Hive 2 so they would be less likely to rob. After all we know the Italian bees are known for their tendency to rob.

All in all I am a little concerned that there will be enough stores for the winter so I will feed through October, as long as it stays warm enough.

Courtesy Levin Images

Here is the Ziploc bag feeding method I explained earlier. The lines on the bag are where the bees put propolis on between the bag and frame. You can also see the shim on top of the 3 hive bodies that keeps the bag from being squished.