In late December in Missouri there aren't many days when the temperature rises above 8C let alone into double figures, but when it does you can be sure it will be short lived; you just know temperatures will plummet again very soon. And so it was yesterday.
We had a balmy clear day with a maximum of 12C. Warm and sunny, and the bees thought so too. I even managed to get out on my bike for some exercise! Anyway, I decided that it was worth feeding the hives I could get to quickly; the two in my backyard and the one that's just down the street and I made up some of 'Ted's mush' (4lbs sugar to 1 cup of water) and put this on top of the hives using a 1" high rim under the inner cover.
I was encouraged to find quite large clusters in each of the hives. It was so cold here before Christmas that I was worried for them; especially as I lost a hive a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, the bees in all 3 hives were at the tops of their hives under the inner covers (maybe that is too high? I have to worry about something after all) and I popped the mush on in the hope they would break cluster and eat some carbs while it was warm.
Today the temperature is expected to drop to -12C overnight and it may well snow! Feeding on a warm day might just take the edge off that!
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