I've been providing sugar water to the bees all winter for 2 reasons: One is that I knew there wasn't a lot of stored supplies for the winter, and two is that if they wanted it - they'd have it. I haven't used too much sugar water ( not quite 50# for 4 hives so far) and I think it's worked out fine so far. I've been noticing, during warmer days, activity from all the hives with 2 hives having more "flight" activity which I believe is probably normal as I had 2 hives that had a lot more bees in them then the other 2.
I've had 2 hives with 1-gallon feeders on top, and 2 with the common 'box top' feeders. One of the box tops needs to be fixed as I've noticed that some of the bees have managed to get under the screening, and gotten trapped - and died. I'll fix this feeder once the weather get's a little warmer, and I can remove it - but till then, I just don't put any sugar water on that side. I've thought about something else too - maybe I can just open it up more - and put dry feed, like pollen substitute on that side if I use it again next year.
One of the 1-gallon feeders needed to be refilled a couple of days ago and since it was warm, I decided to have a little inspection especially since I didn't see any bee activity out front. Whenever I removed the glass bottle and looked in, there wasn't any activity on the cluster so I pulled the top. All the bees had died - what a sad day. I inspected the cluster and hive and can only determine that even though the bottle was 'sealed' well with propulus, it must have leaked over the last couple of days with the extreme cold weather, the cold water/sugar must have dropped onto the cluster/brood and killed the bees. There was still some capped honey and stored sugar water so I know they had food. I've taken the top off, and the frames out and made them available for the other hives to forage off of.
It's a sad day whenever you loose a hive, and it's my fault. I didn't really like the idea of having to feed all winter, but thought all the hives were 'surviving' well considering all the splits I'd done last summer. I've ordered some MegaBee to try and boost the hives with for the spring build up and plan to feed it, mainly externally. Using it externally should, whenever the bees can fly, provide some extra pollen for all the hives - prevent SHB build up ( I hope ), and also help with the spring build up. I was reading in the Farmers Almanac last night that this year is supposed to be another 'wet' spring, and 'dry' summer starting in June. As I made several splits last year, this year will be about getting the hives stabilized, maintain their strengths, draw out the honey supers, and if possible create another split or 2.
I talked with Danny, who I've had 'banking' 3 of my queens last fall for me and he said that 2 of the 3 hives have been doing well so this brings my apiary count to 6 now. I've ordered a package and should get it the first week of March. I've also been in contact with a breeder from NC who will have some VSH queens and nuc's available - but not till mid-May. I'm unsure if this will be 'too late' as our typical pollen season is about to wrap up by then, but we'll see how the year goes. I'd like to get a Nuc from her, and/or possibly a couple of queens earlier depending on how my hives do this year.
The queens that Danny is keeping were born last year, and 2 of the hives I have at home are also new. One of the hives is still the queen from the Nuc that did so well last year. I'm hoping that every year, if or whenever I need - to replace the queens with VSH queens so that I can prevent any issues down the road, and start introducing some better genetics into my apiary. That's the plan anyway, and we'll see how it goes. If I can replace and keep up with any splits or queen needs that I might have - then trying to provide from 'known' good stock would be nice.
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