While cleaning out my shed, I discovered several hard sugar cakes which I had removed from my overwintered hives back in February. I had thrown them in a bucket and completely forgotten about them. Since we are into a nectar dearth—and my honey supers are off—I decided to put the sugar cakes out in the […] Read more
This morning, after a week of advising everyone else to check on their bees, I decided I’d better do the same. I figured there would be no excuse if everything went wrong. I couldn’t say no one told me. So I made some sugar trays just in case and starting doing the rounds. The top-bar […] Read more
The Mountain Camp method of feeding is simple. You take a piece of newspaper and lay it over the top bars, just above the brood nest. Next you add an eke or feeder rim, then you dump dry granulated sugar on top of the paper. Moisture from the bees’ respiration condenses on the sugar and […] Read more
The following question was written in response to my post “Heat transfer in sugar syrup.” It’s a great question but a complex subject. The following is a vastly simplified explanation, but I hope it begins to explain why the bees can eat cold sugar but not cold syrup. The comment follows: The alternative [to sugar […] Read more
Last week a reader wrote in to ask why her bees weren’t more logical. She said her hive is full of honey and a lot of it is right next to the bees. But regardless of the vast supply of honey, her bees scarfed down sugar cakes as if there were no tomorrow. Is this […] Read more
With spring just around the corner, you are eager to know how your over-wintered bees are doing. You just can’t wait to see if the hive is thriving and the queen is laying. But at this time of year it pays to be extra careful. You should avoid disturbing the brood nest if at all […] Read more
I just made my first batch of candy cakes enriched with pollen substitute and I am very happy with the result. For years I’ve been messing with pollen substitute in different formats. Many times I’ve tried making it into patties. Some of these patties got runny and dripped down between the frames. Some dried up […] Read more