That's what you get!

Last time, I told you that the girls still weren’t building comb in the honey super and that I’d have to figure out what to do about that. It didn’t take much. A little thinking is all. Making wax and building comb takes a lot of bee resources. They need more food! DUH! WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG TO CONNECT THE DOTS!? I started feeding them again and low and behold, yep, they almost immediately started building comb in the super. DUH.

Beekeepers do not feed their bees year round. When there is an abundance of flowers and nectar, that’s obviously the preferred source for bees, and for the honey we want to collect. If you want to harvest honey, you want actual real flower nectar to be made into honey. Not the substitute sugar syrup. Bees will turn that into honey for themselves, and it’s fine for them and supplies them with the carbohydrates they need, but it lacks all the wonderful flavor and depth of real flower nectar honey. So we don’t supply sugar syrup when there is a good nectar flow, like in the spring. All the flowers are blooming and nectar is flowin’ and bees are doing their thing turning that into honey.

But seasons change and some flowers stop producing nectar. So it’s mid July and while my own flower garden is blooming and looking lovely, the girls are likely experiencing a nectar dearth. I actually don’t know what plants and meadows are in my area, what the girls are usually harvesting. But whatever they usually collect during the spring and early summer has likely dried up.

If you’re unsure if your bees are in a dearth, put a quart of sugar syrup out. If it lasts longer than a couple days, they’re bringing in enough nectar for themselves. If it’s consumed quickly, they’re in a dearth and very thankful to have a substitute. The first quart I gave them, around 5:30pm, was completely gone when I checked again the next morning. I, uh, probably should have started feeding them weeks ago. Oops.

Making sugar syrup is easy and pretty cheap, but I only have two hives. If I feed my bugs consistently during a dearth, they will easily go through 100 pounds of sugar in one month. Some people have 10 hives, or 50, or hundreds. That’s A LOT of sugar. Mixing gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons of sugar syrup to feed the bees.

I make small batches at a time. 6 lbs, 11oz of white granulated sugar, and 13 cups of water equals about 1.25 gallons. I made two batches this morning. 2 gallons and 2 quarts. If I keep the feeders filled, this will last about 3 days.

So I fed them again this morning and took some pics for you. I have a hive top feeder for each hive, and that’s the main feeder. I put the quarts on the hive entrances, and once they’re empty, I don’t refill them until the next time I make a batch of syrup. The hive top feeders are much better because they hold a half gallon, and they’re enclosed inside the hive so there is little chance of robbing or fighting from competing hives.

They are clearly VERY happy and eager to accept this offering.

I place the lid on the feeder, then the hive lid on top of that. Only the bees in the hive can access the feeder.

Whereas the quart jars at the hive entrance are exposed, and any hungry bee can try to steal some syrup, and my girls will fight and defend their syrup with their lives. Especially if they’re hungry. I mean, they don’t take any crap from nobody. If you’re not a member of the club, you can just GET $%#! LOST! And they are serious about that.

So anyway like a dummy, I went around to the front to take a pic of the other feeders and went sticking my hands and phone all up in their business. Know what they said? They said in no uncertain terms, I am not a member of their club and this is NOT MY SYRUP ANYMORE.

Message received and I GOT LOST.

That’s what it looked like right before I sat down to blog. And here it is as I’m finishing this post. Tomorrow it’s going to look like a sausage. And the middle finger will look like a sausage. And maybe the ring finger. And my hand will look like a baseball mitt. And then the itching starts. OMG THE ITCHING. The stung finger, the other fingers, the palm, the top of my hand, maybe even my wrist. ALL THE ITCHING. I don’t mind most bee stings, but I HATE HAT HATE bee stings on my fingers.

That’s what I get for waiting this long to start feeding them. DUH. They’re not building comb because THEY’RE FLIPPIN’ HANGRY!! 🐝