Winter insurance
I’ve made sugar boards again this year. They are currently occupying the kitchen table and I will put them on the hives tomorrow. I’ve described making them before. I no longer pair them with the dry boards mentioned in that post, as the cloth on them disintegrated and I didn’t replace it, but the hive rooves are packed with wool to insulate the boxes and reduce condensation under the crown board.
These boards have 4 kg sugar each, and I have 5 hives of bees, so the mathematically gifted among you will immediately realise that this sweet operation required 20 kilograms of sugar. Fortunately, our village shop is well stocked; my raid on its shelves still left behind a healthy(?) supply of white sugar. They are nice people that run the shop, and they even lent me a wheeled basket to haul my booty home in.
The damp sugar snow will set overnight into a sharp sugar ice. I will remove the mugs to leave a hole for the bees to climb up through so that they can access the sugar from above as well as below. In theory, the bees will not need this sugar, as their own honey stores within their (14x12) brood boxes should last them until spring. So this is insurance. What sugar is not eaten will, after 4 months in a hive, have absorbed a hive-like flavour and will make excellent elderflower cordial or kombucha.
