Today is grey, drippy, damp, at the very least; otherwise it been pouring rain every time I’ve had to go out to run an errand. On my trip to the hive today I saw a couple of the girls peeking out as if to check on the world without actually going out. I think it was the bee version of “yuck”.
Yesterday was sunny and warm so there bees flying and bringing in a bit of pollen. I was at least able to lift the cover and get a glimpse of the inside of the hive. The first thing I noticed was that the girls have carefully applied propolis all around the edges of the quilt box so that it is difficult to lift the shavings and burlap to see down into the hive. The cedar shavings were wet on the top, but dry down next to the burlap despite all the rain and humidity. That was good to see (and feel).
candyboard 13 Dec 15
I was finally able to tug one corner of the burlap loose to peer down to the top bars of the upper box. That immediately left me standing there with my mouth hanging open. The candyboard appears to be completely gone. Though I did not lift the quilt box off, I couldn’t see any candy left anywhere. There were bees on the top bars moving about and doing whatever it is that they do this time of year in this crazy weather, but certainly not clustered.
Looking back on my hive notes, I see that I put the candyboard on the hive on 11 November 2015. As you can see, there was a lot of it eaten by the 13th of December. (I can tell that I’m going to want next year’s candyboard to have some support in it, because I couldn’t lift this off the upper box to really look into it on that last inspection–not even a year yet and I’m developing some definite preferences for equipment.)
04 Jan 2016
Looking at the seven-day forecast, it might be warm enough tomorrow, if it’s not raining or too windy to get a better look into the hive. If not tomorrow, it’s likely to be a week (at least) before I can do an inspection.
Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I’m just being a worrywart, novice beekeeper, but you can see that this pollen basket is not exactly stuffed–this was taken 04 January 2016–not exactly when you’d expect bees to be bringing in lots of pollen.
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Warm enough today to I could open the hive and remove the strips I’d placed for Varroa mite treatment. There was a lot of activity at the front of the hive.
Seems that the girls have been noshing on the candyboard already–in retrospect I probably should have waited until December to put it on, and just continued with the syrup feedings until then. But hindsight is always better than foresight.
Finally a let up in rain and warm enough for me to play at the hive. There’s still traffic in and out of the hive, but less than during warmer weather when there was nectar and pollen in more plentiful supply. I didn’t see much pollen coming in at all. When I removed the syrup feeders, there were lots of the girls up there slurping up syrup.
once I get it cut down to 8-frame size.
So–do I place an Imrie shim to keep an upper entrance? Or am I going to have to lift the bottom box and change the orientation of the entrance reducer, or just substitute the mouse guard. I miss having the class before the bees arrived; however from the looks of the colony, they are training me pretty well. From 
All my questions aside, it was good to see so many bees working in the honey super and drawing and filling even the outermost frames. They’ve obviously been busy since my last inspection. That should give them a good honey supply for the winter. Being the “newbee” that I am, I am glad that the candy-board is on the hive. Much better safe than sorry come spring.
a-single-serving.com 