Weekend Review

It's time to start thinking bees again, this time of year it's important to make sure they have enough food to make it until a nectar flow. It's also a good time to rev them into breeding production so their numbers are high when a nectar flow starts, you do that by feeding them. I mixed pollen with some of their honey thinking I could just smash it together. Wrong, those pollen granules are like pebbles.


Mortar and pestle turned out to be the way to go.


I made pollen patties out of the honey and pollen. Here is the good one.


And the coarser one. The pollen has lots of protein which stimulates brood production.


Then I began making some fondant, this is a good food source when temperatures are still cold. We feed sugar water in the spring and fall when temps are warmer. When it's cold the bees will not leave the hive as much, and because they will not defecate in the hive, you want to give them something with less moisture. They will actually die before defecating in their home. It all started well. 5 cups of water. 15 pounds (yes pounds) of sugar. 3 cups Karo syrup. I did have a hard time dissolving all that sugar and I wish that I had a candy thermometer. My two mistakes: not having all of the ingredients home (Aaron went on a Karo run) and using too small a pan.


This was the result:


What a sticky horrible mess. Of course it boiled over because I was waiting to add the Karo. Ugh. I also should have made a half batch, our tiny sticky kitchen had fondant cooling on every available counter space.




But it all turned out, and now I have a 2 year supply of fondant. We tore into our hives for the first time since September I think, since we took honey. One our hives has had lots and lots of dead bees. We scoop them out every week, and I'm amazed any are left. There were a fair number of bees inside, they had only eaten through one box of honey, so I did not give them fondant, but I did leave a pollen patty for them. We ordered 3 pounds of bees and a queen to re-populate them in April.
Our strong hive was very active and aware of our presence. I've never seen stingers presented to the air before! They had eaten through two boxes of honey, leaving one left. We moved their empty honey box to the top so they can put brood there and I left them some fondant and pollen. Bees always move up, never down. That is why we moved the empty to the top, it should help to prevent them from swarming in the spring by giving them more space. Aaron did get a small sting on the back of his arm unfortunately. Here is the pile of dead bees below our weak hive: Thousands of them.



In chicken news I have trained Camilla to hop up onto my leg to get cracked corn. It's a pretty sweet deal for her, being the underdog. She can have the food all to herself! (She is filthy in this picture, I interrupted a dust bath)


Aaron enjoyed some Camilla eggs for breakfast on Saturday.


These two have been sharing a nest box. What an odd pair. Buffy must be 4 times her size. But they are friends til the end for sure.


Today we headed to Portland to do some wedding registering. I would need a whole other post to discuss my feelings about wedding registries, so I will keep it to myself for now.
Valentine's plans are in the works....