Pulled the Feeders

I was up at the farm this morning for a variety of things with the gardening, and went to check on the bees. I wanted to see what, if anything, was happening in the West hive's honey super I had recently placed on top. I went with smoke and no protection and didn't have any problems. There were bees checking out the new super, but no work yet on drawing out honeycomb yet. I then took a peak in the top of the East hive and found them busy as bees working away.

Of course, when I got ready to put the inner cover back on the bees were in the way and I didn't want to crush them, so I tried a trick I saw in a video to move bees without getting them too upset. I have noticed that when I use my bee brush they get really upset and try attacking and stinging it. So I grabbed some long weeds growing near the hives and used them to brush off the bees. It works great. They don't get upset or anything. So I cleaned off the edges and replaced the top without killing any bees.

After finishing my gardening for the morning I went back to the hives and looked at the 2 empty feeder jars on the East hive (last time I pulled the one feeder from the West hive and placed both on the East hive). I kept thinking...At what point do I want these bees to fend for themselves? There were lots of blooming flowers, especially white clover in the immediate area, so I pulled both feeders. We'll see what happens.