Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Fall feeding

As the weather turned cold and rainy for a day, I decided to try feeding the nasty hive again, hoping that the other hives would stay home.  It seemed to work, as I saw no robbing.  The hive is much more active than the other two, as they seem determined to increase their numbers for winter survival.  Pollen gathering seems to be the main ingredient, as most of the bees foraging are bringing back legs sullen with pollen.  Hard to see inside the bees for nectar, but I guess some are full of that too.  The other 2 hives seem set for the winter, although they are lite on the supplies, but I intend to feed fondant throughout the winter.  For the first time all year, I got attacked while trying to mow in front of the hives.  No stings, just angry bees buzzing around my head.  Surprising how fast you can push a mower through tall grass.  I guess its just the fall mood.  I seem to have killed all the beetles in the nasty hive as I haven"t seem any evidence for a couple of days.  I think I killed 7 or 8 altogether, along with the worms which fell on the bottom board.  Haven't seen any of those either for a couple of weeks.

Got another hit on the White Oak Apiary blog, that makes 8 disgruntled buyers.  turns out he may have gotten AFB, but I'm not certain.

Later