I am moving my bee journal online after four years of trying to keep bees. As of Tuesday March 8th I have two hives with live bees. I fed them ‘bee candy’ today as it has been a snowy winter and I was afraid their honey stores were low. The recipe can be found in Chapter 7 of “The Beekeepers Handbook” by Alphonse Avitabile, Diana Sammataro and Roger A. Morse.
Weather when I opened the hive was ~40 degrees F and clear, both hives were in shadow as it was 4:30PM. I easily placed the candy under the inner cover in the first hive (Hive One). I noticed a large number of bees at the top of the hive next to the inner cover.
The second hive (Hive Two) was much more difficult, the bees attacked me causing me to leave the candy on top of the inner cover. This hive is healthier but the bees are much more aggressive. Bees in this box were also clustered near the inner cover. I killed at least 20 bees from this hive attempting to drop the candy into the hive.