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Went to top off the top feeder with syrup (1.5:1), saw ~30 dead bees on the inner cover. Our top feeder has two tanks and two access points. There were dead bees covering the dry bottom of the tanks (I put in 4 liters on Monday, apparently they really went through it). We had a problem previously with a few drowned bees, but thought we had resolved it with a bunch of twigs/small sticks for any bees that slip out of the feeding points. Feeding points are covered in wire mesh to allow them to crawl down to the syrup and crawl back up. But the puzzling part this time was the deep layer of bees outside of the tanks. It was probably 700-1000 dead bees (4-6 cups?) altogether. Did they crawl into the feeder space then couldn't figure out how to get back into the hive? It seemed like the bees were much more agitated flying around the hive and I did see a few bee pairs that might have been fighting in among the bees dying in the top?
Background: First year hive, ~14 frames of brood last check (2 weeks ago) the rest of the bottom 2 deeps are honey. Queen excluder and one empty super that they did not draw out. We did not take any honey this year. We have been putting syrup up top for since late August, shifted from 1:1 to 1.5:1 about a month ago. HopGuard2 treatment in September (removed 2 weeks ago).
I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm doing my best to learn!
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Background: First year hive, ~14 frames of brood last check (2 weeks ago) the rest of the bottom 2 deeps are honey. Queen excluder and one empty super that they did not draw out. We did not take any honey this year. We have been putting syrup up top for since late August, shifted from 1:1 to 1.5:1 about a month ago. HopGuard2 treatment in September (removed 2 weeks ago).
I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm doing my best to learn!
Modify message