December 22, 2023
It’s a good idea to take a quick peek into your hives now. If there are bees in the hole or on top of the inner cover, it means they may have run out of honey. Even if there’s some still left below, the cluster won’t move back down during cold weather.
If bees are present at the top, it’s time to make a candy board (no cooking involved) and put it on during a sunny, windless day. I personally use 1/2” hardware cloth (screen) as it doesn’t bulge downward as much as the plastic excluders do. You can also lay a pollen patty on top in March or April – not before.
An even easier option is to just make the candy recipe into discs and lay them directly on top of the frames. If the bees don’t eat all of the candy, it can be dissolved into syrup or kept for next winter.
