Feeding

It's time to start feeding the bees. We harvested the honey two weeks ago. When we 'pull' the honey, we try to leave enough for them to make it thru the winter as it's their major food source. With no flowers blooming during the winter, they can't forage for food.

If it doesn't look like they have enough honey, we feed them sugar water to help them out. Sometimes pollen patties, since they have protein in them.

There are different types of feeders, today we tried the ziplock bag method we'd heard about from another beekeeper. After mixing two parts sugar to one part water in a 5 gallon bucket, we filled a dozen gallon sized ziplocks. We laid them inside the hives and cut a small slit in the side so the bees can gradually suck the sugar water out.

We'll check them in a week to see who needs more.

This is hive #16. It's a swarm from last year and has been the most successful one we've caught. The population is high and the queen appears to be healthy, producing the appropriate amount of brood.