[juzzerbee]

I placed a top feeder(the crawl up and in style) on a hive of mine about a week ago. I added coloring to it to follow their storing, for fun. I checked the hive tonight, the temperature outside was 49 degrees. The bees were not feeding at all. I would have guessed that there would have been a few(or more) drinking up some of the syrup. I dribbled some syrup down the feeder and into the center of the hive to "lure" them up to the syrup. Any idea why they weren't feeding at that time? Here is southern Wisconsin we are still waiting for things to bloom. Last week I did see some pollen coming in, but very rarely. Any idea why there were no bees feeding at all? My mind thought, too cold out, can't find the syrup, using their honey stores instead, or does the green food coloring have something to do with it? Thanks, juzzer

 

[JStinson]

Your bees are starting to cluster at those temperatures. They won't break cluster to get syrup. Also, bees won't take syrup that is less than 55 degrees or so.

 

[juzzerbee]

Thanks, that makes sense. juzzer