We have had some very mild days recently. As a beekeeper, these days are particularly noteworthy. We all enjoy a nice day in January, but for the honeybees it can be a lifesaver. I think they have enough food to get through the winter, but I’m not sure about that and a warm day is a chance to add a snack. I have enough bee candy to provide a couple more mid-winter snacks. From what I have heard and read March is the toughest month for the bees. They will be running low on food, there is no outside source yet and the stress of the winter is probably at its maximum. I hope to save at least one snack and find a warm day in March to feed, but the weather will decide.

I also recently put up a wind screen which might help to prevent some heat loss and prevent the vicious north and west winds from blowing my hives over.

Last Sunday was a beautiful day in the 60s, so I opened each hive and added some candy. For some reason, I ended up leaving both feeders on, one on top of the inner cover and one under the inner cover. Some of the candy is a bit too thick to lay on the frames under the inner cover, so I put that candy in the feeder. I am hoping that there will be enough warm days for the bees to climb up into the feeder even if I don’t see them flying about outside of the hive. It looks like there is a good population of bees in both hives. It’s hard to separate the candy from the wax paper, so I just put the candy and paper in the hive and they drag the wax paper out. In a way, when the hive is closed, it is some tangible and comforting evidence that the bees are eating.

So the hive is closed now and only Mother Nature know when I will get my next chance to feed.