Morning Dew Apiary

Morning Dew Apiary

I started this blog in 2008 as a 1st year beekeeper chronicling my efforts to holistically raise honey bees. This now serves as a diary, allowing a look back upon the successes and failures I've had.
Now in my 4rd season, my postings will continue to explore the latest thoughts and techniques used to raise bees without chemical intervention. I do not claim my methods are best or even correct. My hope is to provide the reader an understanding as to why I try something and to actually see the results. Click on the photos/videos in this blog as I try to describe the joys, trials and tribulations of raising bees treatment-free in New Hampshire.
-John
www.morningdewapiary.com
All materials ©2008, 2009, 2010,2011 John R Snowdon

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Hungry bees


After being out of town for a couple of days I went out this morning to check on the hive top feeders. I purchased 2 polystyrene feeders with my BeeMax hives and had added 2 gal of 1:1 syrup when I hived them on Saturday. Hardly any syrup had been taken up on Monday but today showed the bees feeding and more than half the syrup consumed in each hive. I'll feed more syrup when I open them on Saturday to check on queen release and see if they're building out any frames.

Only problem was a fair amount of drowned bees. I had used some sandpaper to rough up the plastic bee guard to give the ladies better traction but still have more than 40 drowned bees in each feeder.

Overall, my wife and fellow beek, Gayla, says the hives have been active while I've been gone and the bleeding hearts have seen lots of activity. Hive 1 still seems more active than hive 2. I'll explain the differences in my next post.
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