Feeding the Bees again

I like to keep track of our bee maintenance, so I use this blog to do it. We've fed several times, the last was on Thursday, October 10th before we left for our granddaughter's wedding the next day. We plan to feed them again this week. I walked by the hives yesterday and there was lots of activity at both hives. When we fed them on Thursday there were lots of black hive beetles caught in the swiffer sheets. We'll need to put more in next feeding. Hopefully the bees will do well over the winter. We have the patrons of beekeepers on it. Whenever I bless our beautiful property with holy water, I never miss the bee yard.  

March 16th: Feeding the Bees

March is the starving month for bees. There's no nectar yet and the queen is laying the Spring brood so the need for food is up. We fed our five active hives sugar syrup on Friday, March 16 when it got above 50 degrees. Since then it's been pretty cold so we are waiting for a 60+ degree, calm, sunny day to do a full inspection.

We also took down the hive that collapsed last fall. It had two boxes of capped and uncapped honey, 18 frames which we'll use to feed the bees when we split hives in April.

When I took the frames out of the bottom box I found the small cluster of bees who remained in the hive and couldn't survive the winter. They were huddled in a corner. There was plenty of food in the hive, but there weren't enough bees to keep warm. I showed the bees to the grandchildren and we all agreed it was sad.

They are wonderful little creatures of God. Isn't it tragic that in our crazy culture people are more likely to lament the loss of this little cluster of a few hundred bees than the 1500 babies ripped apart every day in surgical abortions?

We live in sad times. All you saints and angels, pray for our return to sanity!