A day at the farm

Yesterday, we headed north to the farm to see Grandma and the bees. I added a candy board, quilt, and top entrance to Amelia's hive.

A candy board is sugar and water that is put in a box, and then left until it dries out and hardens. That is their emergency winter food, since liquid would freeze in the low temperatures. There is a hole in the bottom for them to enter and exit. And the boxes for the candy boards have upper entrances built in, so the bees can enter and exit even when the snow gets a lot higher this winter.

The moisture quilt is the ventilation box (top one below) that we attached canvas to the top and bottom, and then put wood chips in between. The rule is, a wet bee is a dead bee. Since they keep the queen at 96 degrees, the heat goes to the top, and then once it hits the cold, rains down on the bees. The moisture quilt is supposed to, in theory, stop the raining.

Beatrix's hive had eaten all the sugar syrup I'd left, but Amelia's hadn't at all. So I took Amelia's sugar solution and added it to Beatrix's. (While they got all nasty at me and one very un-politely stung me in the neck. Ouch! What I'd intended on being 30 seconds rearranging a box on the hive meant I needed to get suited up.) I added the moisture quilt to Beatrix's hive, but will wait until we go back there on Thanksgiving to add the candy board.

What started as a simple love for honey, has turned into quite the adventure. Two more weeks, and the hives will be put to bed for the winter. And then it's a hope and a prayer that they make it through until next year!