Felix was faking, long live Felix

It turns out the bees going in and out of Felix were robbers from Oscar.  I reconfigured the hive to the same setup as Oscar and ordered new bees.  The replacements and their queen arrived this morning.  Of course it is raining buckets and in the mid 50s.  The sun eventually peeked out this afternoon and I hived the new arrivals.  No issues, no problem.  The bees seemed pleased that their new home was mostly furnished and partially stocked with honey.

Felix Lives

Felix was just playing possum, apparently.  Sunshine and 50F and there are signs of life.

March Bees

It is 45F and sunny and the Oscar hive has bees out and about.  There is pollen substitute and fondant on this hive so they have something to eat until the pollen starts coming in.

If Felix doesn't show some signs of life soon, I am going to order another 3lb package of Buckfast bees for that hive.  Nairobi will have to wait until Oscar swarms for new bees.

Mid-winter Sighting

Last weekend the temperature rose above freezing for the first time since New Year's Day.  The sun was out and when the air hit around 40F Oscar's bees took flight.  I whipped up a quick batch of fondant to feed them.  I checked Felix while I was out knee deep in the snow but that hive looks pretty dead as does the top bar.  It looks like one out of three have made it so far.

New Years Eve Bees

The Oscar hive had bees out and about today.  The other two hives, not so much.  The temperature hit about 48F for a high.

Fall Feeding

I put the last of 10 gallons of 2:1 sugar syrup + essential oils on the hives today.  The temperature is still into the 60s so the girls are out foraging.  I closed up the entrances of the Langstroths with reducers on the large opening.  I will shut them down to the small opening once the temperature stays in the 40s or lower.

Felix looked good with comb visible in most of the bars in the upper deep.  Nairobi is still kind of small with comb on only 9 bars.  Oscar doesn't have much in the 3rd deep, but with 2 undivided deeps below it should be ok.

I need to get screen to make condensers out of shallows and wood shavings in order to keep the moisture down in the Langs over the winter.  I will probably do that this weekend if they have finished off all the syrup.  Nothing but fondant and pollen patties for everybody once this syrup is gone,

Robbing

Bald faced hornets and lots and lots of yellow jackets.  Nairobi has no honey stored and the girls are evacuating a ton of dead bees from the bottom of the hive.  I corked the second of three holes on the KTBH and put entrance reducers on the two Langstroths.  I will start feeding 2:1 sugar to water this weekend through the rest of the fall.

Many yellow jackets have felt the wrath of my hive tool.  The little bastards were even killing bees at the waterer I have set up on the porch.  I killed one nest earlier in the summer that was trying to establish in the railrod tie retaining wall.  Stupid wasps.