So the first New England hurricane that my hive has to survive is named “Sandy”, and that’s also the name of the hive itself.  Oh the irony… Hopefully, though some cosmic connection, they will decide not to fight this one out.

With 24 hours until the storm is expected to hit, I drove down to the Cape today to secure my house and my hive. Which to save first is somewhat of a debate. Since I spent last summer (OK, Spring and the Fall too) obsessing over the health of the hive, I have to admit I’m more worried about the hive surviving the pending onslaught.

Hurricane Sandy, is going to be big, and I want to make sure the ladies are all OK in there. So I checked the straps looped through the cinder blocks, and tried to tip the hive over myself. Finding it hard to tip, at least side to side, I made sure they got a fresh batch of candy up top. If they have to ride through a hurricane, at least there will be plenty to eat. Let’s hope it’s not their last meal.

Even though I’m worried about the hurricane, the bees didn’t seem to think much of it, and were flying in winds gusting to 31 mph today. Crazy buggers…

[UPDATE October 29, 2012 5:34 PM] The hive is still upright. Even after 68 mph wind gusts. It might make it though!

It’s hard for me to believe, but in two weeks of weather that was only in the 60’s(F) most days, the ladies chowed through almost a half a tray of the candy I made them. Now, I’ve been known to eat my fair share at the table, sometimes with obvious consequences, but this… no, this is an impressive feat. They ate nine pounds of sugar. Eleven ounces each day. Almost a half an ounce an hour.

When I examined the candy box today, all I saw was a few shreds of tissue paper and happy, fat bees. Now I should point out that it’s about a week into October, and there just isn’t a lot of flowers left to pilfer on the Cape. There’s an occasional dandelion, and some clover flowers, but that’s about it. I think the candy I gave them, which I wasn’t sure they would even eat, was more of a primary food source than I was expecting.

So, my next move as a new beek, was to give them more. I may regret this, but it seemed like the right thing to do as I want them as strong as possible going into the winter. And yes, this means I am going to be feeding them every two weeks throughout the winter, or at least be checking to make sure they have a sugar supply. Hopefully as the winter kicks in, and they stop flying, they will eat less each day.

So much for the low-maintanance bees I have heard about over the winter.

Now that the fall is upon us, the threat of mice in the hive is a real one.  Each fall, as the days grow colder and food is a little harder to find, some field mice decide it’s worth checking out a bee hive. The trick of course, from a mouse’s perspective, is venturing into the hive late enough in the season where the bees are more worried about freezing to death that killing an intruder. For those that are not stung to death, the hive is warm, full of food, and represents a cushy existence over the winter.

So every beekeeper knows, you need to seal up the bottom entrance of your hive (a good excuse for having a top entrance) with a metal mouse guard. Wood, it turns out, is easily chewed through by a mouse who is sure that golden honey awaits him on the other side. So the metal guard goes over the entrance in the beginning of the fall – just in case – to keep the little creatures out. At only a few bucks each, I got two mouse guards from Brushy Mountain, and as you can see from the picture, one is now on the hive.

The tricky part with these, at least for a new beek like me, is how to fit them on the hive. For some strange reason, they are built slightly smaller than they should be, so they are not an exact fit on a standard size entrance. And then, since they are not a snug fit, they need to be secured to the hive as a predator could just brush it away with a claw. For all you new beeks out there, I took a small sheet-rock screwed and secured the mouse guard to the landing deck of the hive. And yes, I used a power drill/driver as I was messing with the bee’s entrance, and I wanted to get the job done as fast as possible to avoid them mounting an attack.

Now I think this should keep out the mice, but let me remind you that some of them are small, and come winter all of them are hungry, so there is no such thing as “mouse proof”. Given the right set of circumstances, they will get in. I’m just hoping to make it really, really difficult for them.

I’m certainly not a cook, and I barely dabble in baking, but today I made the ladies a pie. Not your traditional human pie of course, but a mixture of:

* 9 pounds of sugar (a 4 lb and a 5 lb bag)
* 2 cups of water
* 1 cup of MegaBee protein supplement

It’s a dentists dream.

Just mush it around in a big pot made for making  spaghetti,  using a big spoon. This is going to take some arm strength, as the mixture is going to come out like a mud pie because there isn’t much moisture in it.

Once it’s all mixed together, and has a reasonably uniform color, put it into a shallow pan and let it harden overnight. I used the pie tray from last night’s chicken pot pie dinner as it was the perfect height, and had a little whimsy to it.

Now I call this “unheated candy” as there are lots of recipes on the ‘net for candy that you need to heat to 243F. I’ve tried this, and while the ladies like it, it’s a mess. You really are making a type of candy that a human would eat, and you could horribly burn yourself making it. If you’re not really, really comfortable with making human candy, I’d stay away. As an alternative, I found this method which doesn’t involve heat at all – even a child can help with it. The question is – will the ladies like it? I’ll know more tomorrow after I put it in the hive, hopefully in the morning.

Bee candy that is… The process, which seems easy, is trickier than it looks.

1. Get a whole lot of sugar, a little water and slowly heat over a stove.
2. Bring it to about 234F, and pour it into a mold.
3. Let it cool in the mold to room temperature, and pull it out of the mold.
4. And try not to burn yourself. On anything. Ever.

OK, first off, it came out like warm taffy. Sticky, very slow to run, and certainly thicker than honey. It’s pliable, so you can mold it into what you want, but it also was in a slightly liquid form, even after cooling in the fridge, so I don’t think it would be usable in anything but a bowl. So I did just that, and put the bowl in the hive.

To say they “swarmed” it would be incorrect in bee-speak, so I can only say it was a feeding frenzy. Like crack for bees. They descended on it like it was fudge at a Weight Watchers meeting. I was careful not to touch the container after they discovered on it – I didn’t want to lose a finger.

So what’s the deal with the candy? It’s just sugar and water. Boiling it doesn’t change what it is – it just mixes it well. It certainly tastes better to me than just sugar and water, but it’s hard to think the bees notice. What is it with “candy”?

[Update] After a few days, I checked the candy and a few bees had died in it. I think it was too sticky and they got “stuck” on their food.

Although the summer is officially over, the bees are very active, possibly more active around the entrance than I have ever seen them. This is good, as the last few days have had bad flying weather, and their foraging has fallen off because of it.  I’ve decided to inspect them as little as possible from now on, as every inspection is disruption to their work, and I want these last few months to be as productive as possible, especially since October is the last bloom of anything around here.

I ventured inside the hive today, and was in for a minor disappointment. While the hive itself is rockin’ with the original brood box chock-full-o’-bees/honey/brood, the lower medium super has barely any comb drawn out – perhaps only 1/8 of a single frame after two weeks. So as we are about to enter the Fall, I am worried that the ladies won’t have enough food stored for the winter. To combat this, I am going to build a modified upper entrance candy feeder. This should help with their food stores, as well as with any bottom entrance issues over the winter such as snow build up and mouse invasions.

Beekeeping: Half art, half angst.