Today, we added the plastic hive top feeders (that came with the hive boxes) to hives B and C. Initially, we had to level out the hives a bit before filling with sugar water. Then we put the wooden cover plates on top of the feeders before adding the telescoping cover. Dad called on 9-2 and mentioned that the bees were able to get into the water and drown as a result of putting the wooden cover plate on top of the feeder, so he took them off and we'll see if that helps.
In a general inspection, the hives were about in the same situation they were on the last check. Hive A is in good shape, Hive B has some brood in the top box, and Hive C has almost nothing in the top box. Hopefully, feeding hives B and C will help get them ready for winter.
I am really impressed that you have beehives in this day and age where honeybees are so rare.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about 10 (?), which would have been back when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, back in the 1970s, honey bees were everywhere. I remember being stung in between my baby toe and the next one from walking barefoot in the yard.
Honeybees are a rare sighting these days, even in the clover patches that I walk through.
Another old home in Mathews (Clifton) had a pecan orchard and underneath someone used to keep bees.
Glad you're keeping up the hives. - cbw/jcv