Starving!

I was so thankful to receive dire warnings via Facebook and email from Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association, as well as Brushy Mountain Beekeeping and Pigeon Mountain Trading Co. about the immediate need to feed the bees! Even though the season is deceptively warm and we're lured into thinking the bees have plenty of food, an actual lack of nectar flow has put Southern bees into starvation mode.

Yesterday I made a big batch of sugar syrup and went out to inspect Apollo, my only remaining hive. Sure enough, when I pulled off the inner cover, there was a cluster of about 100 dead bees on the top super. Sad, sad, sad. This super, which was full of honey a couple of months ago, was now almost devoid of honey. The bees were STARVING and had been feeding off their stores.

On the positive side, the queen had apparently made it up into this super and been hard at work laying eggs. Six of the frames were full of beautifully capped brood, eggs and larvae, and the laying pattern looked just as it should. My sweet little honeybees need a food source so that they can, in turn, nourish these baby bees and make a strong colony.

The girls went through a large plastic feeder of syrup yesterday and they are now working on a small feeder this morning. Probably time to think about ordering a feeder that can supply them for at least a few days at a time.

Hope I've dodged a bullet and kept Apollo going — I'd hate to lose yet another hive.