The Remains of the Candy.

Back on the 7th of January, I put a four and a half kilo block of candy on top of this bee colony and it looks as though they’ve eaten a bit over half of it. Today they were bringing in a bit of yellow pollen which contains the protein that they need to feed the babies. That means that the queen is there, laying eggs, and all is well with the World. We are actually looking at the bees through the sheet of cling film that wrapped up the candy and so the view isn’t too clear but, with the naked eye, it is possible to see the beads of condensation that the bees are using to dissolve the sugar so that they can eat it. In fact, some of them are sopping wet but are still beavering away completely unconcerned. If you look in the extra, you can see a close-up of them feeding with their little proboscides sticking out and working ten to the dozen.

When the weather warms up in a few weeks, I’ll take the candy off and dissolve it in water to make a syrup which will save them from having to work quite so hard and, I will continue feeding them syrup until they have built up a large enough population to start storing honey; the first big nectar source will be the invasive alien bequeathed to us two thousand years ago by the Romans, the sycamore. So the next time anybody asks you, “What did the Romans ever do for us?” you will be able to say that they gave TrikinDave’s bees the sycamore. They also gave Mr McGregor the prime ingredient for his rabbit pie.