ok this is fool #2 here.. time to start this blog off and buzzing about! Though with our bees, it’s all about getting them ready for winter and  no flying. Some of the new things we’re learning are:

• Fall feeding
• Making quilts to go over the top bars for slight warmth and moisture wicking
• Removing unused top bars
• Plugging 2 of the 3 entrance holes to minimize cold draft

Life have been very busy this fall but managed to sneak over on Monday supper time to check the bees.

It’s been just over a week since the last feeding and the way they were taking the syrup the week before, I wanted to get back and make sure they had syrup left. I had also made some fondant and put that in the bottom of each hive and wanted to see what was with them as well.

here is the peaked roof for the new hive. The upside down pic shows how the quilt frame fits inside.

The roof does have open sides, but the quilt box fills that space and leaves some for airflow up and out the gable holes. I am also hoping that next summer this space will allow enough airflow to not contribute any heat to the hive, yet keep it dry.

The weather the past week has been very cool and hovering about 10C on avg. When I checked the hives, neither had taken much syrup from the 4L jars as you can see.

I didn’t get a picture of the fondant inside the hive, but it wasn’t a pretty picture anyways. It looks like the fondant has slowly spread out some. The block I put in was about the size & shape of small fist.. now it’s about pancake thick and size of a whole hand. The bees were on it, so I assume they’ve been using it. This was the same in both hives.

I have no idea if fondant is supposed to do that, or the temps inside the hives were a contributing factor. My thinking is no, especially since some people are hanging fondant in mesh bags from top bars. Could be simply not enough icing sugar was mixed in? Could be because I did not heat it?

I put the quilt frames on the tops of the bars and fitting the quilt bags inside them, tucking the extra down into the empty space behind the follower. I also removed the last empty bar just in front of the follower.

I was in a bit of a rush as there was impending rain, so it looks a little “messy ;but you get the idea from the pics of where I am at.

you can see in the lower left of the hive face that I’ve also plugged 2 of the 3 entrance holes.

This original roof wasn’t made with a quilt box in mind, but it sits firmly and I hope covers things enough.

This is where the new peaked roof will go.

oh, and this is what the weather was like on Monday.The rain off to the left of the picture is what I am racing to beat.