I had to make up another 7 batches of sugar syrup for them this week - that's 28kg of sugar in a fortnight! I thought I was being massively over-prepared when I bought a 25kg sack of sugar last month!
These frames in the super are now full of sealed honey, with the white cappings on for winter storage. Sugar syrup alone would not store well for long (it begins to ferment and makes the bees sick) but now that the bees have processed it into honey and sealed it away it will store perfectly well for several months if required.
You can see how thick the honeycomb is now. With this much on each side of the frame they're fairly heavy to lift. Of course I had to lift the whole full super off the brood box to be able to check that - normally I can do it very gently but it must have weighed about 20kg today. I just hefted it down hoping any bees would have the sense to get out of the way quickly!
I stand the full super on top of the upturned roof like this. This means that there won't be many bees lost on the ground as I carry on checking the brood box.
There is loads of capped honey stored in here too - the side of the frame you can still see in the box here is completely full of it. The one being held up still has brood developing in the very centre, as do all eight central frames, but the priority for the colony now is to store food like crazy, not to raise new mouths to feed!
This is the ideal state to leave the hive in for the winter. I hope to do one last check through next weekend, if the weather's warm enough, then it'll be time to shut it all up for the winter and hope for the best.
