I think I was supposed to stop feeding the bees by the second week of October - because there won't be enough time for them to drive the excess moisture off the honey before capping it over with a fine layer of wax. Honey that is too watery can ferment and give the bees indigestion and tummy ache.
But....
The hive that came back from the heather (We're calling it the Temple hive) feels too light and I am worried that they will not have enough to eat during the winter. You have to grasp the hive and lift it slightly to work out how heavy it feels and therefore gauge how much food the bees have - its called hefting (not sure of my spelling though).
My other worry is that the Garden hive (so called because that was the colony that stayed in the garden) has a lot of dead bees on the crown board around the contact feeder - although I have left a space so that they can get back into the hive. The amount of dead bees seems to grow everytime I go down there. This hive feels good and heavy but I'm still worried about all the dead bees. If it was because of robbing (bees rob each others hive and die trying to defend their supplies) then you would expect the other hive to feel heavier than this one. Hhmmm.....
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