Introduction:

BEEKEEPING IN THE NORTHEAST - An account of my beekeeping, not a treatise of expertise, but for friends & family who wish to keep bees vicariously through me, and for the occasional apiarist passer-by.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

June 14 - Water, Water Everywhere But None To Drink


We found four dead bees from the backyard Lavender hive drowned in the Duck's food bowl. I've been closing up the floor board in our deck to hide the faucet from them as they like to find a water source and then stand guard all day at it.

It is in the low 50's - cold and wet. Several drowned bees on the landing board to the hive.

No activity this morning so I peaked in and found that the pollen patty had turned to mold and all the syrup was gone. No bees on top, but the hive was humming with activity. Maybe just too cold to go out and no nectar flow as the dandelions and lilacs are done. I put in a fresh bag of 1/2 water 1/2 sugar syrup and a small sliver of pollen patty on a fresh inner cover. The hive was dripping wet with moisture so I made sure to put back the homasote board that I took off when the ants invaded.

Tomorrow promises to be 70's state wide and sunny. I'll take a look at all the hives.
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Had to wait until this morning, June 16th, to take a look on Ferncroft at the "sister" 8 frame hive. They also went through all their syrup and the patty was beginning to mold. They had no interest in it. I scraped it off the inner cover and put in a fresh bag o' syrup.

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