My new shipment of honey bees arrived last Wednesday, one week ago from tomorrow. If you recall, my Postal Carrier made an early stop at my house to deliver them. She had a major case of the heebie jeebies at the thought of driving around all day with 12 pounds of bees buzzing contentedly in her truck.
MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I spent quite a bit of time last Wednesday setting up the new hives and tucking the bees into their new homes. All was well.
When you start a new hive with package bees (which is what we are doing) you need to be aggressive in feeding those bees. They need to make comb. They need energy to fly. They have a lot of work to do to establish their new home. They think, Food. Food. Food. Food.
Bees eat a lot! I was prepared to feed the new bees. I have done this before~starting with package bees~so I knew the drill. 50-50 blend of sugar/water. It is a very thick syrup. I bought a 25 pound bag of sugar from Wal-Mart. I though that would last me a little while.
Wrong.
I was back to Wal-Mart again today. I bought ANOTHER 25 pound bag of sugar.
See, I have a one gallon glass pickle jar that I use as a bee feeder. I fill the jar with 10 cups of boiled water, add 10 cups of sugar, mix until dissolved and let it cool (we do not want the bees to burn their little bee tongues!). I have drilled very small holes into the lid of the pickle jar. I take the jar outdoors and prop it upside down on a couple of bricks. The bees then fly up underneath a space in the bricks and lick the sugar water from those little holes. It is like an upside down hummingbird feeder.
They drain that jar almost every. single. day.
So, I am using 10 cups of sugar every. single. day. That is a lot of sugar! That is why that 25 pound bag did not last an entire week.
I will have to do this for at least a month. Maybe two. I will check on the new bees periodically to see how they are doing in setting up their new home and determine when I can stop feeding. Sure hope they are fast workers! Sugar is expensive!