I went into my three hives today. Number three was dead. The queen was in the middle of the cluster. There were a lot of dead girls on the bottom board. Looked to be plenty of honey. I have no idea of what happened there. Number two looked O.K. And number one is very strong. Maybe they will make it. When are you guys going to start feeding? I'm not sure they have the 50# of store needed to get them to spring!
I have dry sugar on the top bars now on hives that were light. It helps with moisture and the bees can eat it now.
Last year I fed syrup to the light hives any time the temp was above 50 degrees F all winter. If it got cold at night I would scoop the syrup out and add warm syrup back the next day. The old syrup went in a jug to get warmed in the house over night and got put back in the next day. But that was drastic measures for hives that either ate all the stores or got robbed and had basically empty comb going into late fall. 5 of the 6 hives made it through winter, one lost its queen and was a loss.
Begin feeding when your hives need it.
With the weather we are having now its great. The cluster begins breaking up around 47 degrees and they will be able to move stores around so as long as they have stores they may be in good shape for now.
The queen was in the middle of the cluster. There were a lot of dead girls on the bottom board. Looked to be plenty of honey. I have no idea of what happened there. Number two looked O.K. And number one is very strong. Maybe they will make it. When are you guys going to start feeding? I'm not sure they have the 50# of store needed to get them to spring! 