Well, I put my first powdered sugar on the strong hive and it appeared to go well. At least until I pulled out the bee brush to brush the sugar on the top bars between the frames. Boy do my bees hate that brush. They get on that thing and try to sting the living daylights out of it. Same thing happened the first time that I used it, to remove them from the hive cover.

Amusingly enough, their ire was not solely directed at the brush. One of them jumped on my shirt and I could see her pumping her abdomen furiously, doing everything in her little power to jack me with her stinger. Fortunately (for her and me!), I was bent over a bit and the shirt was well away from my skin. I blew her off and moved away a bit to let her settle down before continuing.

All in all, I am happy to have gotten that done. My next goal is to do an actual mite count on this hive and get some sugar onto the weaker hive. I will wait until this weekend to do all of this and am hoping to see enough progress with the weaker hive that I can drop another deep on top of her. I honestly considered putting just a super on this hive, as I am not so sure they have enough time under the best of circumstances to fill up a deep. But, it occurred to me that they might end up laying brood in this thing before next Spring and I would have another mess on my hands. So, a deep is what they will be getting. I’m hoping to have enough extra honey from the strong hive to share some with the weaker gals in case of emergencies.