Tuesday, November 25, 2014

No brood is normal

I talked to Joe at Country Barn Farms, and he assures me that I should not expect to see any brood this time of year. He thinks the stores are a bit light, and that I should plan to feed them early, on warm days in February, to help them survive.

The feeders are still in the hive, but the Valentinum does not seem to be eating as much as the Benedictium.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Queenless

I've been feeding the hives lately. The Valentinium has taken very little feed, while the Benedictium has taken quite a bit.

The last two weeks have been really cold; we've had an arctic vortex. But today the temperature got up to the sixties and the bees were out.

I noticed that the Valentinians had quite a bit of sugar stuck to them, so I took the hive apart to take a look. I saw a fair amount of crystalized sugar in there. But more importantly, I saw that there were about 6 and a half frames of honey in the upper body, and the frames in the lower body were all empty. I saw no brood comb.