Since June was a bust in the weather department – it was the wettest June in local history – I’ve been feeding the bees. I have two of the large front feeders and one regular sized feeder that came with the bee starter kit. The large feeders seem to hold about a quart and a half and the smaller feeder about 3/4 quart.
The hives take about three hours to empty a large feeder and then keep on swarming all over it so that I have trouble retrieving it to refill. Even a day later there are lots of bees on the feeders.
I put one of my top feeders on Martha and I put two quarts of sugar syrup in it. I came out the next morning and it was bone dry and full of bees that had somehow worked their way around the barrier and into the feeder.
I put a gallon in another feeder and put it on the hive and I was stung under the arm when a bee sneaked up the back of my jacket and up to my armpit.
Today I ordered the Dadant.com professional bee suit. I am not fooling around any more. I can’t work the hives if I am afraid of being stung.
When I get home tonight I will go out and see if I can sneak in another gallon into Martha. It’s easier to fill a top feeder because if you do it carefully the bees are not really aware that you are doing it.
All of this sugar is being made into comb, I hope. Soon there will enough comb for them to continue on their own. July is not a good month in New York for bees. The bees break even during July, but in August and September the hay fever plants all bloom and the bees do well on these. By then I will have the suit and I will have redesigned the hives with an extra deep and maybe a super or two without being stung. I will feed them for the rest of July and hopefully they will fill out the hives with comb and brood. If it looks like they can make it, I will stop the sugar about half way through August.
In October I will do another week or two of feeding to top off the hives for winter. With luck some bees might live through to next Spring.
