I'll admit, it's been about 3 weeks since I last checked on the hives. I think they were a little angry about the dry weather and lack of significant nectar available for them to make honey with.

They would buzz around me whenever I went near the hives, and would follow me most of the way back to the house. Those were the bees that weren't trying to sting me through my gloves.

I knew they had plenty of stores and were doing good, so there was no reason for me to check on them then anyways.

Today, my goal for the Purple and White hive was to remove it's empty feeder and close them down for the winter.

I have field tested several types of feeders, and have always come back to the hive top feeder, as my personal favorite.

Below is a picture of my hive top feeder, now empty, with quite a few bees in each empty trough.


It seems that when the sugar is empty, the bees can squeeze between the bottom 1/8th inch opening in the wire mesh, created when I cut the "V" shaped pieces of mesh just a bit too short.

I guess the lure of licking up the last of the sugar droplets is overpowering, and they sneak their way into the troughs through the tiny opening.

They can only access this opening when the sugar is almost gone, as it's otherwise under water (sugar water), so there's no danger of them drowning.

I think instead of cutting a new set of "V" shaped pieces, I'll just drizzle some melted wax in each end that was cut short to seal it up.

At any rate, once I removed the feeder, and put their screened inner cover back in place, I could easily tell how many frames were occupied in the top box.



Seeing this picture reminds me I need to swap out their screened inner cover for an insulated one soon.