More Syrup, Please!

Fed the gals on Wednesday and again on Friday.  They sure are thirsty bees!  Hopefully Monday or Tuesday I'll have time to go into the hives and see how they're doing.  I can see white specks on the bees coming up to the feeders, and I assume that is wax flakes.  So hopefully they'll have the frames in the second deep drawn out.  I think they're doing ok.

Empty!

When I got home from work today, I thought I'd slide a top back and check the syrup.  Remember, I added 1 gallon to each hive on Saturday evening.  Monday evening, the feeders are dry.  Empty.

So I mixed up some more syrup and it's cooling now.  Dad will stop by tomorrow and feed the bees.  I'm sure they'll appreciate it.  They were all lined up to the trough this evening looking at the empty feeder.  So I'm sure they'll be happy when the syrup gets there.

Popped the top to check on comb building

I know this isn't the best time of year to be wanting comb.  But I had the second deep with empty frames and wanted to ensure they had room and food for this coming winter.  As cool as it's been this summer, I suspect this might be a cold winter.

Anyways, I looked into two hives today and they're definitely building comb, storing honey (well, it's the syrup I've been feeding them) and laying eggs.  I am very happy with the performance of these bees.  I think I took the right path when I started feeding them again (see previous posts).  I will feed them some more this week and look into the hives again in a week or so.

Adventures in Cusotmer Service (and other hive activities)

Since my bees are lagging along and not building comb like I wanted them to, I decided to put the top feeders back on and give them 1:1 for awhile and see if it would help. I put the feeders on top of the inner covers so they wouldn't build crazy comb up under them again. I also stopped up the notch openings in the inner covers to keep robbers and outsiders out. After thinking about this some more, it seemed that the hives could get really hot with no ventilation out the top (the telescoping covers fit snugly on top of the feeders). I had a 10-frame top vent screen I had won as a door prize at our beekeepers association meeting a year ago, so I put that on top of the 10-frame hive. I ordered 3 8-frame vent screens from Kelleys. They came Monday and I went out to put them on. Well, they sent me 10-frame screens.




I called them up and told them what had happened and forwarded them the order acknowledgment I had received from them. The gal on the phone looked through the catalog and told me she didn't think they had 8-frame screens. I forwarded the order acknowledgement I had received from them back to her. She found the 8-frame screens in the catalog and said she'd get three of them headed my way. I asked about the 3 10-frame screens and she said to just keep them. (I'm waiting in case they do decide to send me a return shipping label. If they do, I'll send them back. If they don't, I'll take them to the beekeeper's assocation and donate them for door prizes. Isn't that karma thing something?)

Anyways, I got them Thursday afternoon!  So I took them out and put them on the hives. When I got to thinking about things (it seems that's when I'm most dangerous!), it looked like, although the tops were raised a little bit, it was a tight fit and I couldn't see how there was any ventilation. Perhaps the screens work better on top of the inner covers, or maybe I need migratory covers. Anyways, I decided to prop up one end of the telescoping covers (remembering the stick under the top philosophy). I figured that since it was screened and nothing (except maybe SHB) can get in, it was safe for the hives, and it would increase ventilation.



Anyway, thumb's up to Kelley's for taking good care of me.