Spring Feeding

I gave my surviving hive (1 out of 3) its first spring feeding with Fumagilin-B and Honey B Healthy.

The candy board that I had made out of the queen excluder did not appear to be touched by the bees. Either they did not need the sugar or maybe the waxed paper that I used to line the bottom was too tough for the bees. Either way I'll probably melt this down for the next bucket of syrup. I'll check the syrup after a few days and see how things are going, but at least they are alive.

The other 2 hives that had candy boards died over the winter. I think the problem was that I put the boards on wrong-side up so that the bees could not reach the sugar easily and the moisture in the hive was trapped below the boards. The hives seemed damp when I opened them up, and there was mildew on the homasote boards in the hives. I should have contacted the guy who made the candy boards to make sure I was using them correctly. As it is the bees in the hive were all head first in the cells like the colony had starved, but the candy boards were untouched. I'm guessing that the cluster could not break up to move and access the candy when the boards were wrong-side up. Add the moisture problem and the hives were doomed.

I spoke to Phil Gaven when I went to purchase the Fumagilin-B, and he said that a lot of people lost hives over the winter. Including master beekeepers like Phil and Erin Forbes. The usual problems with mites and starvation and small clusters all contribute to winter losses. I just wish I could avoid user error, but I am still learning, and the bees are recovering, I hope. Now it's just a matter of waiting for better weather. The snow is still deep in the shade of the trees, but the fields are melting.