The hive-top feeder that I put in place last week contained about one gallon of thick sugar syrup, which I hoped would inspire the bees to stock up for winter. Luckily, it was empty today. [Above - the bees in the removed, empty feeder zoom back towards the hive.]
They're in no shape to overwinter so far. They ought to have one super of honey and one of brood, theoretically, and they have about half and half in one super. Not even. In fact, if there is 10 lbs of honey in there, I'd be shocked. [They need about 70 to overwinter]. I can't fathom how they're continuing to boom in numbers when they aren't building in the upper deep and aren't capping any honey. This hive, frankly, is doomed.
I am going to double up the batch, or maybe triple it for next weekend, since they'd started one frame of all sugar water in the top super. In real life, they'd have built that up from a hearty nectar flow, but I feel like there is a lull in the fields and the bees are being lazy. If I were selling the honey, this would be outrageous and tacky, but since I'm just trying to get the bees ready to feed themselves, the richness of the honey is secondary to the volume, in this case.
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