Weather : Spotty Rain, 70 Degree F

Hive 1 has finished all of the sugar syrup that I gave them and seem to be itching for more. Hive 2, however, has not even touched a drop of the stuff. I have added more syrup to Hive 1 and am waiting until the weekend to determine what the heck is going on with Hive 2. Kenny, a wise Beekeeper at the ERBA, mentioned last February that ‘if you have two hives, one will always be noticeably stronger then the other one – no rhyme or reason.’

This weekend, I will give Hive 2 a full ‘redo’, getting rid of any excess pollen and putting the feeder (after I clean it) directly on top of the box. I also plan to do a thorough inspection of the brood on this hive to see what the heck is going on. On Hive 1, I will mainly add a second brood chamber (or ‘Deep’, as some call it.) I do want to give them a good ‘once over’, as I doubt that I will be looking in that chamber again for a month or so.

On a ‘nectar flow note’, I was walking to my car from work yesterday and noticed a bunch of bees on a small, yellow-blooming tree. Upon closer inspection, this tree appears to be the Golden Rain Tree. Amusingly enough (or sadly enough…), I dumped several seedlings of the Golden Rain Tree last year (or let them die). Now, I see that it could be a very good source of food for my gals. Of course, this whole even took place at Cary and 6th street. There are probably not a lot of options in that area to begin with. Maybe that was the only thing blooming in that area.