Checking the Bees in February

Abigail and I checked on the bees yesterday afternoon. It was very warm and sunny, and we thought it would be a good idea to take a look at them and see how they were getting along.
We checked Vivian first, and she was looking a little low on honey supplies. She had also suffered the most death loss of the three, but she still had enough to get a start on the flowers when spring gets here. But we'd feel much better if we got her something to eat on, so we left her top cover off and went on to Scarlet.
Scarlet was doing great. Still doesn’t much care for her second story, but when we set it off the first story was filled solid with bees. We pried up a few frames and she still had lots of stores left. So we put her hive back together, as she didn’t need any assistance.
By this time we had gotten hot in our bee clothes, and so we decided we’d take a break before going at the third hive. It would also serve the double purpose of letting Carol’s bees cool off. So we popped the lid off of Carol, (to which her bees replied angrily, as always,) and broke the seal between the stories, setting the top aside on bricks. They came out of there in a swarm, and we retreated far from the scene and sat in the shade of the barn’s south wing and talked to Dad, (who was leveling the dirt floor after the recent construction, and raking things smooth,) and Kate, (who sat on her gray mare, and practiced her relaxing.) The mare didn’t like Dad working in there, but she soon settled down about it and just started sniffing around complacently.
We stripped off our bee gloves and veils, and removed our jackets and breathed deeply of the nice breeze. After a few minutes we returned to find Carol’s bees had calmed, and we sorted through her frames. She did not have as nice a pack as Scarlet’s, but there was still plenty of honey for her and her crew. She had emptied some of the honey filled burr-comb that we left for her to chew on over winter, so we now took the opportunity to take that off. Her hive is really rather bad about burr comb, I hope they behave themselves this next season.
Then we packed her hive back together and Abigail went to feed hay to the goats while I went inside. We had decided to make some sugar cake for Vivian, to make sure she had enough to get a good strong start as soon as the flowers start. I looked in my bee folder for a recipe, I know that I used to have one, but it wasn’t there any more. I must have thrown it out in an effort to organize things in there.
So I tried calling our bee suppliers, but they didn’t answer the phone. I really needed to find that recipe and get it made, because we had left Vivian’s hive open while I brought the inner cover up to the house to pour the candy into. So I went to the Internet.
I had the hardest time getting the search words right, because I kept coming up with ‘bee cake’, which would end up to be a regular cake, only made with honey, and there seems to be a great deal of variety on these. One was called a ‘Bee Sting’ cake, which I’m not sure where the sting part came from.
Anyway, after much searching, I came across a recipe posted by City Bees. These are bees that apparently live in Washington, D.C. Which just goes to show that bees really can be kept everywhere!
After jotting down her very helpful instructions, I descended to the kitchen and prepared to concoct some. I have never had a great deal of success with candy making, despite numerous attempts, and was ambivalent as to my chances of success this time. (They always seem to come out grainy, even when I put the lid on and let it boil capped for three minutes like they tell me to.)
Reading in one of our natural remedy books for animals, the author included bees and said that many old bee keepers in merry old England would put a pinch of salt in the candy. So I threw one in. The book also said that sage tea was an excellent thing to start with instead of water, it was very good for their health. It was already two late for that, as the sugar and water was heating nicely, but I stirred in some sage herb along with it, it was sure to lose its properties to the hot syrup, and the bees are savvy enough to notice part of a sage leaf when they come across it.
In a lot less time and bother than I had anticipated I had the mixture whipped to white, and I dumped it out onto the upturned inner cover. I set the cover at an angle to prevent the hot candy from running out the handle hole, and the whole thing set up very fast, quicker than I could get the pan cleaned with the rubber spatula. It finished cooling in about fifteen minutes, so that when I turned it over the candy showed no signs of falling off of where it had stuck, even though it still had some heat in it.
It was getting late in the evening when Abi went to milk the goats, and took it down to put on top of Vivian’s hive. I hope they are as pleased with it as I am.