This mainly for those who are new to beekeeping and live in the far
Northern US and Eastern Canada on this list.

Now is near the time to feed your bees either candy or sugar to get them
through the time that brood starts and they can forage. If the bees are
at or near the top frame they will need to be fed even if the hives are
still heavy with honey. The problem is the honey is not over the colony
but below or around it. We had a poor honey season this year in many
places in the North, a perfect situation for spring starvation.

In many parts of the North in late winter/early spring you can get some
warm days followed by a long stretch of extreme cold. Many years ago in
late March I left to attend a wedding. All my colonies were doing
exceptionally well. Heavy and lots of bees all over the top frames. When
I left we had a cold snap that lasted a week or so. On my return, in two
colonies, I found dead bees surrounded by honey stores. They could not
get to the honey because they were warming the brood and did not go the
few inches on either side to the stores.

Now, every year, I put a block of candy over the broodnest so if there
is a cold snap they do not have to move to get to stores. If the bees
are still low, they will not even get to it, but I do not have to worry
about them either way.

There are plenty of opinions on how to feed, be it candy or dry sugar
but most agree to get some extra stores near the broodnest to keep
starvation at bay. Candy is nothing more than sugar syrup boiled down to
a temp of 242F and poured out on a cookie tray to make a thick sheet (I
keep it about 3/8 inch so it fits under the inner cover).

Some put dry sugar on the inner cover. Some put candy there. Some put
candy or dry sugar on the frames.

I fed mine yesterday. All were alive but most were already on the top
frames. Only one was still well down.

One colony welcomed me effusively. Had to go back for gloves. The others
were more dispassionate and took the candy without much fuss.

Bees do go for watchbands.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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