Feeding Time

I'd put the first 3 pints of sugar and water feed, (1 pint to 1 kg), into the hive last weekend, but having checked a few evenings in the week the bees weren't consuming it anywhere near as quickly as I had been told they would, perhaps it was because I'd put the feeding tray in a super and it was a bit too high for the bees to access, or maybe the colony isn't up to full strength this season as it was a July nuc? I decided what I really needed was an eke, a shallow box the same depth as the feeder.

This morning I popped to the local timer merchant, wanted Cedar but had to settle for pine, I can always treat the wood later once the feeding is done, above is the temporay eke and 2 pints of feed.

Below is the hive before swapping the top super for the eke. Bees were pretty busy and still bringing in plenty of nectar and bright orange and yellow pollen, wonder where they are getting that from?

Below the new eke is in place and the feeder topped up, if you look closely you can see that it's not just the bees who like the food, it's full of drowned ants!

How do the bees get to the food? Under the centre rib is a raised section with a slot in the top, the bees come through the hole and then creep down the sides of the raised section to drink in the feed.

Why do we need to feed them? Well a strong colony needs between 35-40lbs of honey to survive the winter and having stolen their honey, they need to be force fed to replenish their stores. OK I didn't get any honey this year but just want to make sure they have enough to help them survive.

The hive all back together with the eke is place, my one mistake was to do this at about 11am when the bees were pretty active, as a result spent a lot of time trying to keep the bees out of
the feeder and sugar water! As it was it rained all afternoon so maybe I timed it about right?

Tommorrow I'm on a course making a skep.