The hives are very low on honey all of a sudden. I robbed Fanny and got only 15 pounds of honey. The rest of the hives are very low and the weakest hive died.
I was not paying close attention to one of my weak hives. I assumed that it was putting something away, but last week the hive just collapsed due to starvation. I should have paid closer attention. This hive never made comb and never put away honey, but it had a fairly large population. I am saddened by the loss of this hive and the time and money I put into it. I could have fed it sugar, but I don’t think it would have made it through the winter.
I will be feeding the other hives, now. The late summer was great and the bees really increased. September was deadly, though. I watched the bees coming in with pollen and I thought that they were OK. I was wrong.
A month ago I checked the supers on the new hives and they were full. When I went to harvest, the comb was empty for the most part.
I have to take the supers off of the rest of the hives and feed them. It is dark when I get home and it is just getting light when I get in the car in the morning so I have to do this on the weekend. I will feed them as much as they will take between now and the end of the month. I’ll check to see if they have put away enough honey for the winter, then. If not, I will feed them on warm days.
I want to take the top feeders off by Thanksgiving and spend that weekend wrapping the hives with roofing paper for the winter.
