Bee Chronicles

6 October, 2020

3 September 2020: We just had our meeting but I have noticed my bees doing something different. I have cat watering bowls on my deck. They have been there for years. This year the bees are drinking the cat water. Maybe they like tuna fish taste. They are consuming a quart or so a day. They empty the bowl. I have a creek 100 yards farther out and there are bees drinking there. Why the change? Probably because it is closer. I have 34 hives in the close proximity. -It is now 20 Sept. The bees do not come to the cat bowl in as big a crowd. The number of bees seem to increase when the syrup feed runs out. I do not see the correlation.

I am feeding my bees 1:1 syrup and Ultra Bee pollen substitute. My goal is not only to increase the amount of stored honey, but to increase the amount of late season stored pollen. Some of this pollen will be consumed by the adult bees. The objective is to ensure the adults have "full fat bodies" plus stored bee bread to feed late season larvae and stored up for next spring late winter eating.

More research is required, but I suspect some of the late winter die off is related to the bees re-absorbing the fat stored in their "fat-body glands". This fat is created by ingesting pollen.

I have 30 hives and they are consuming about ½ cup of Ultra Bee in two days. Don't feed so much it molds in between feedings.

We are still involved in a good goldenrod bloom, accompanied by several kinds of asters. Virgin's Bower and Fall Clematis are still blooming. White Snake root is just starting and there is another white flower on a gray leafed plant blooming. All these wild blooms allow for good mixing of pollen and nectar with the sugar syrup you are feeding.

Monitoring bee populations, health, and food storage are the main activities of the Beekeeper right now.

If a hive looks weak and not salvageable between now and Thanksgiving, go ahead and combine it with another hive. The more population in a hive going into the winter the more food it will store and the better chance to survive the winter.