Today was high 50's, breezy, and sunny.
Approximately 2:30pm my father and I inspected the hives.
Hive #1: Carnolians
Feeders still had sugar syrup on one side. I had also put a comb of honey from last years harvest on the other side, which was all gone. Looks like the bees prefer honey to sugar water. A few dead bees and lots of live bees. The top body was heavy with honey, capped and uncapped. Located the queen in the middle of the top body. Put a little more honey with comb in top feeder.
Hive #2: Cordovans (Blonde Bees)
Top feeder was dry...sugar granuales left but no sugar water at all. Comb honey consumed. There are twice the number of bees in this hive than Hive #1, which explains why the food is gone. Not too much honey in the hives. We found two large hive beetles, which we promptly smashed. Located the queen in the middle medium super. We switched the top large super with the medium super. So the queen is now in the top unless she decides to move down.
We poured all the sugar syrup into both sides of the feeder as emergency feeding and also added honey + comb from last years harvest.
