Crazy weather in Northern Utah. It's reached 55* F the last two days and the bees in one hive are actively flying, basking in the sun and dumping dead bodies. The other colonies were out but not like the one. All 4 hives are getting a little light (weight-wise) and the warm weather won't help. But I got to peek into all of them and I found good numbers in each. The center frames were mostly consumed with a couple of frames of capped honey on the outer edges. Bees sounded very happy as they were buzzing around, soaking in the sun and landing on my bare head, neck and ears to check me out. I was in my element!
Made my first ever fondant patties and they came out very gloppy (American slang for"too moist"
). So I had to spread it on some cheese cloth overnight and let the water weep out. So two hives have some feed and I'll take care of the rest tomorrow. My fondant for two hives: 2.5 cups water, two heaping tablespoons white corn syrup and 9 cups (4.5 lb) sugar. I tried to double a YouTube recipe: 25 g glucose, 300 ml water and 1 kilo sugar. I've either got to reduce the water or cook it a bit longer. What do you think?
Also, why would one hive be so much more active than the others? They all get equal sun. Does one colony become more active if they sense food storage is getting low?