I found this poor little bee this morning at 10 AM but felt confident by 6 PM that the group had survived very well. But now, at nearly midnight nearing the end of Day 2, I'm sure I've killed, or am killing, the entire colony. All because of that sugar water that isn't flowing properly (and that they may not even need). This may cause so many problems! The entire enterprise may be over in a week. I want to run out there right now and hank out the feeders. But I already looked inside the hive at about 8 PM (my first infraction of the "do not open for 5-7 days!" rule). And I don't feel like suiting up at midnight, getting my smoker going, and trying, in the dark, to carefully remove the feeders. Oh the worry. I'll know something tomorrow I guess. It's supposed to be showery and only 65 degrees. Today was very sunny and 70. Will the bees even want to come out on a showery 65 degree day? If they do, I'll breathe a bit easier. If they don't...
Ommmmmmmmmmmm.
4 comments:
Just let 'em bee! If it's not actually raining, they will likely come out and hover in front of the hive to orient themselves. But it's good to let them to get settled, undisturbed, for a while.
What kind of feeder are you using? I'm not really familiar with them to know how they might malfunction, but I'm guessing the bees can probably deal with it.
Hi Kitt,
At 10:30 AM on Day 3 things seem to be OK. The feeders I'm using are a local type, made from recycled heavy-duty plastic oyster pails used to ship oysters (this IS Maryland you know, with its bountiful Chesapeake Bay -- crabs, oysters, etc -- although the health of the Bay and its residents is in peril, but I digress wildly). You poke a few holes in the plastic lid, fill the 1-gallon bucket w/ sugar water, put on the top which has a really, really tight fit (b/c the pails are shipped upside down), and invert the entire thing. A vacuum effect is supposed to occur, which causes the fluid to stay inside the pail but the tiny holes are just big enough for bee tongues to get through. I think the pails needed a few hours for the vacuum to take full effect. I peeked under the lid of the hive and there was a lot of bee activity so I guess I didn't kill everyone last night. I've GOT to stop peeking inside the hive....
Yay! Glad to hear they're doing OK.
That sounds good! You didn't see syrup trickling out the front entrance, so it's probably working just fine.
I met another beekeeper in my neighborhood today. You might have more around you than you know, too. Maybe you can find a local beekeeper buddy to lend moral support when you do inspections.
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