Hive #1 (previously attacked twice by bear) - Feeder had a lot of dead bees. It appears as though they drowned in the sugar syrup. Because of the low temps a couple of months ago I put dry sugar in the feeders. The bees in Hive #1 didn't seem to eat the dry sugar. When the temps warmed up I added sugar syrup and it was late in the day. There were a lot of bees in the feeder and because a storm was brewing I poured the syrup in quickly. ARrrgh approximately 15 bees were drowned. Note to self: DO NOT USE DRY SUGAR to feed in winter. It's not worth the mess and the loss of a handful of bees. Try using candy noughat this winter.
Noted many bees from Hive #1 with pollen baskets on their legs. The top super very heavy with honey.
Lots of bees noted in Hive #1. Scraped bottom board. Bees seemed calm and I didn't need to use smoke. Reversed the supers, placing the top super on the bottom and bottom on top. On top of each super put grease patties and api life. Cleaned out feeder and poured in sugar syrup.
Hive #2: Very busy hive. I lite the smoker. There are three supers on this one and I plan to split the hive the end of the month. I will remove one of the supers as I don't think they need all that space. When I split the hive I will remove 5 frames and will then be able to remove one of the supers.
Again, I removed all supers, scraped the bottom board. Reversed the order of the supers. Noted two or three queen cells that the bees have created and the queens were larva stage. I killed the queen larva because I don't want the hive to swarm before I split them. I have an Italian queen being shipped the end of the month fully fertilized and ready to be installed in new hive. Applied the patties and api life. Filled the feeder with medicated syrup. The bees were calmer than usual, however, still had to use smoke. Lots of bees coming from the field with pollen baskets on their legs.
Began procedure at 1:30, including preparation of meds, patties, etc. Procedure finished at 4:00pm. Bees very excited about patties. Saw one bee carrying part of it in her mouth. Happy bee.
