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| January pollen collection |
Meanwhile I've found bee activities, other than hive inspections, to engage in. First on the list is mead making! I began dropping hints in September, giving specific details in October, and ordered the kit for Santa in November. Oh boy....it was under the tree Christmas morning!
After lunch and family fun I set out on my first mead making adventure. Much like my other first time experiences this had mediocre results. Anytime I reduce a recipe it goes awry if I don't write it down. It's okay, because I know myself well, and compensate. That means NO I didn't write it down, realized my error 90% of the way through, then crossed my fingers and hoped what I did to fix it worked. It didn't. I know, shocking! I also know that if I take notes after failures I tend to not repeat them. I did take notes and embarked on more mead making. It's a hobby that stresses me, and has yet to provide a sense of accomplishment. I'll know more in a month.
Since I have no mead goodness to show you I'll share my feeding experience. January temps are well above average. The girls can fly every couple days. They all had a full deep of honey going into the winter, but I'm worried about one that feels light so I made a spacer to hold fondant. The process was similar to the top bar frame but for a Langstroth it fits between the deep and inner cover.
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| Assembled and ready for fondant |
After creating a small spacer to sit flush on the top box I lined it with hardware mesh to hold the fondant. I used the same fondant recipe as my top bar frame, it's from the book The Thinking Beekeeper. I poured it out in baking pans then transferred it over.
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| Fondant placed on the screen and ready to be placed on the hive |
I added some pollen substitute to one end and quickly set it on the light hive during a warm day. Not quick enough though. They flew out to attack to make it clear they didn't like the mid-winter disturbance. Maybe they'll change their mind about my intentions when they aren't starving to death when winter finally sticks around. I'm not sure how they managed to go through so much honey compared to the other hives, but hopefully this will hold them over until spring.
