Feeding progress report

Checked out how the bees are coping with the "artificial" sugar feeding in preparation for the winter.

The top photo is of the "offspring" hive, by far the weakest colony which is being fed with ready made fluid sugar from a bucket. Here one can see that there is lots of space between the combs and a lot of work still to do. The bees are very busy flying with the wonderful weather we have had the last week and it is notable that those flying in to the offspring colony are predominately loaded with pollen.

The bottom photo is one of the two hives being fed a semi hard sugar paste (wrapped in plastic on the top & sides to stop it drying out) which the bees mix with water to turn in to honey. Here the picture is quite different, the combs are
well built out, there are lots of bees on the top.

I am a little concerned that one of the hives is too full but MrB assures me that the bees will regulate this themselves. Well I guess with 10 million years experience behind them, he could be right.