It was the 5th of January and I had a single hive that was light on food. There was no weight to the hive. The weather man was calling for a 2 weeks of cold weather and I knew this hive would not survive if left out side on its own. So I picked it up and placed in the basement in the dark and placed a feed jar on it.
It was a nice warm day yesterday and the weather is suppost to be nice for the next 2 week so decided it was time to put the hive back outside. I placed the hive and opened the hive and gave it some frames of honey, 6 frames with a good capping of honey on them.
Here are some observations. The bees did not start talking the syrup for the first 3 weeks until they had consumed all the stored honey in the colony. From the first of February when the bees started taking the syrup, the bees (that covered 8 deep frames) only consumed a pint of syrup. When I went thru the hive the bees had not stored any of the syrup in the cells all the combs in the hive were completely empty of honey and syrup. There was no eggs of brood in the hive which I knew would be the case as bees need the light of day to trigger and stimulate brood rearing. I did not place the hive in the same location as where it was before moving it into the basement and so I did not know whether the bees would reorient to the new location or would they go to where the hive was before? because I opened the hive right away after moving it and shaking the bees off of 5 frames, and placing 6 frames into the hive, after getting the hive put back together there was bees orientating to the new hive location but there was also bees flying around where the hive was originally located also. The new location as only 6 feet from the original location so the bees eventually found their way to the colony.