Fall is a busy time at The Martin Hives! As of the late summer/early fall, we've removed all the surplus honey from the hives (coming soon to a webstore near you!) and it's time to help the bees get ready for winter. Making sure each hive has a minimum of 60lbs of food stores for winter is super important. Nectar has stopped flowing so we have to give mother nature a hand. We feed our bees a home made sugar syrup to supplement their natural supply of food. I serve it to them hot and they seem to love it. It feels like I'm out there filling feeders every day! Sean was kind enough to shoot some candid photos of me feeding our most aggressive hive ever the other day. Thanks, Sean! So here I am... feeding the bees!
The syrup goes into an in-hive feeder that holds a gallon of liquid. The blue disc on the feeder is it's base.
The feeder is then placed on the hive's inner cover.
The bees then have access to warm syrup without having to leave the hive.
Once the feeder is installed, we close up the hive and let them go to work! They'll take the syrup from the feeder, store it in the cells in the hive and have it to eat all winter long.
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