I had the Apparel pdf on my phone and I sent it to Yahoo and am now forwarding it to you. I hope it comes through this time because I'm out of ways to do this with my not so stable internet connection (although it's fine according to my ISP). I checked the club hives today to see how the sugar discs were holding up. I had given them both (2) discs two weeks ago, and the green hive had 1 1/4 discs left, and the yellow hive had 1/4 of a disc left. I wasn't overly surprised by the yellow hive, but I hadn't expected the green hive to be consuming sugar yet. I had my last two discs with me and put them in the yellow hive. I had given (1) sugar disc to the (2) G apiary (Winneconne area) hives and to the (2) M apiary (Eureka area) hives on the same day so I thought I'd better check them too. All (4) of those hives were heavy with winter stores when I put the winter covers on and put in the discs, not expecting the bees to touch them until January, yet the sugar was totally gone in (2) hives, and not much was left in the other two. I was not expecting that. Bruce commented that perhaps the bees are using the sugar first and saving the honey for winter, which wouldn't be a bad thing, but I had never heard of bees going for sugar when honey was present in the hive. Could it be that the lemongrass/spearmint essential oil blend is too much for them to resist? Do they have a plan to use sugar first so when it gets really cold and they're clustered they will have honey nearby? Maybe it was colder when I put in disks in the past and they couldn't break cluster? I truly have no idea why they have gone through a 1# sugar disc in two weeks time when they have loads of honey. But I thought I'd pass this on as a Heads Up to everyone that has emergency sugar in their hives. It might not be there anymore. I just made a batch of sugar discs and added marjoram essential oil. We'll see if they're as attracted to that as the lemongrass/spearmint essential oil blend . They do like marjoram, so they might be. Not a bad scent, and it isn't as overpowering in the house as the lemongrass/spearmint was. I'll check the club hives again in 7 - 10 days and add discs as required. I expect the yellow hive to be full time feeding throughout winter, so if anyone wants to contribute some sugar cakes or discs, bring them along to the December 15 meeting. They will bee appreciated. They can't be more than 1 1/2" high though to fit under the winter cover. As a side note, I intend to buy a 2L bottle of Hive Alive during Mann Lake's Black Friday/Cyber Monday 12% off sale. One member is already "in" on the buy, but I don't know how much he wants yet. The bottle won't be opened until March so that it will take us through the spring and fall feedings, for those that are interested. I'll let you know the cost per ounce once I get the invoice and we get closer to Opening day. Good beekeeping, and may the Apparel pdf make it through this time. Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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