Ready for Winter?

It's dark here by 8.00pm - honey bees don't fly in the dark -
they navigate by the sun.  Even on dull days.  The nights are
quite chilly too so the colonies are slowing down.  It's time to
make sure they have enough food for the winter - 20kg or more
depending on the length/mildness of the cold weather and the size
of the colony.There will be around 40,000 - 50,000 bees in a good-sized colony.
A deep comb holds 2kg+ and a shallow 1kg+.  The beekeeper
needs to check the quantity of stores each colony has and then
make up the difference.  This can be done by giving them the
boxes of wet extracted comb to lick out.  They LOVE this.
I've been giving my bees wet combs  over the last week.
Then the bees can be fed sugar syrup (2kg white sugar: 1litre water).
2kg sugar can be converted by the bees to 2.5kg of honey - so
you do the maths!
There're more things to do to help the bees through the winter...but one
thing at once.  More tomorrow.
XXQBXX