Bees-ness

My hummingbirds found they had to compete with bees for the sugar water in the feeders, they were clustered around the feeding sites. I decided that meant the bees were hungry so I set up a bee feeder on a step ladder close to the hummingbird feeders, hoping to draw them off. They went crazy over it, draining a pint jar in one morning so I swapped it out at noon with a quart jar and they polished it off in a day. I need to buy stock in sugar companies!

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I decided if the bees were that hungry I better start feeding my hives and took quart jars of sugar water over on Monday. The two original hives are doing great, the capture hive, not so much. They never thrived and took off, didn't build any comb so I finally divided up the top bars and put in each of the established hive and plugged the holes.

I found this bee doing some housekeeping, hauling out the carcass of a fallen comrade,

This is looking down at a top bar filled with bees and honey.

This is a side shot of the same bar, not the best but you can see the solid bees.

They were actively flying in and out of the hive....

....a close up.

This is a shot through the viewing window, the bees are so thick you can't even see the comb.

An over crowded hive is a threat to swarm but they still have room to build on one end so I'm not too worried. A full hive is best for going into winter to keep the bees warm. They have a lot of honey stored away so I want to keep them fed now to save it till winter when I will still install sugar bricks on top as insurance.

I went over the next evening to see how the feed was holding out and both jars were empty so I filled half gallon jars on Wed,, hoping it will last a couple of days. They were really hungry! Today I was out picking raspberries and the bees were bugging me. I know people who live in town who would like to keep bees but I can see where this could be a problem. If you were feeding hummingbirds and bees were swarming your feeder, it might make you a little perturbed! I'm afraid people would try to kill the bees and that would not be good. My bees are 1/4 mile away and they found these feeders and I think they have driven two of the hummingbirds away. I now have one lone hummer who is very nervous when he feeds.

"EEEKKK!!! It's a bee!!"