More food (Feb post)

Put the first jar of super sugar saturated water with pollen on each of the hives Saturday afternoon. Since it was my first time, it was only about three quarters of a quart mason jar. It was all gone by Monday night. Put a new jar on each I've Tuesday morning. They certainly are sucking it down. We expect the next two days of rain, been sunny but cold on the weekend. If it's warm in the afternoon I'll open the hives check for brood.

Capt'n Tony at Tupelo

You can never learn enough. And if you're not confused, you're not keeping bees. Learn a lot about their own today.

Time to feed pollen, too

Attended one of Captain Tony Hogg's workshop this morning and decided to add Mega Bee pollen in liquid form to my feeding. I mixed up 2 cups of sugar with one cup of water and added a little bit more than a quarter cup of Mega bee. It's the first week of February. There's another 5 weeks before the last anticipated frost. We had sleeting weather last week, and now nearly 70 degrees today. All three hives are doing well, but I've not gone into any of them. The hive at the farm is bringing in pollen, so even though it appeared hot last week, it is most likely Queen right. The two at the house are very active is well. I will take off sometime this week to go into all three of them to assess where we are.

Hot hive

Took a frame of fall honey out to the farm this morning. It was a very active morning for the ladies. I set the frame about 40 yards away to prevent any robbing. I went back to check on the hive and see if they were bringing in any pollen. When I checked the underneath tray,  they decided to check me out. One hit me on the ring finger. I shook it loose and the stinger landed on my ring. I could still see the muscles pumping the poison out. That's the glistening drop on the ring. Look close and you'll see the red mark. Considered if the phermones would alert them to my presence. I stepped closer to the hive, was hit again and decided to retire. The high level of annoyance may indicate that is not queen right. Queens won't be available for another 4 weeks. I don't know if this hive will survive if it's not queen-right. It might be trying to raise their own which would be a natural response, but if there aren't drones around that would be a problem.

Food!

A little food for the girls in the cold.During the really cold weather, if we get a sunny day, I will feed back a frame of money left over at the end of fall. I keep the frames in the freezer til I'm ready to use them. I'll put them out at night, and usually by the morning they've been found. It's a great opportunity to look at the girls up close and check what their wings look like. I know, not all of them were from my hive. They are so intent on filling their honey bellies that you can get very close without them noticing at all.