Bees!!

[EmilyJoy]

Yes absolutely Grandpa usually just feeds them in the winter... Like I said I'll bet you don't notice them in the spring/summer because of all the different blossom etc.

If you did continue to feed them sugar water the man would end up like one person we know.. He thought he had a bunch of honey at the end of the fall, well he did but it was more like sugar/honey water capped off! And it was all the sugar water he had fed them.

[Northernstar]

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious! (kind've!) Our winters are extremely cold and snowy up here, so it's hard to remember that in other parts of the country such things could occur :)

[EmilyJoy]

For what ever reason we've had terrible winter kill with the bees... In fact rarely a hive makes it through, I think it's not just the winter but a combination.. Such as pesticides, mites, etc... At any rate nothing like homemade bread with homemade butter and fresh raw honey!!!

[Northernstar]

First, hmmm - hope the bee situation there is cyclic, and farmers are indeed observing the quota for pesticides in your state - Second, mmmm... Love homemade bread, butter and raw honey!

[deserthorsewoman]

Wow! Didn't think that thread would BEE so interesting

I thought about the sugar water in a flat pan. Asking the owner is a bit difficult..he barely speaks English and I even less Spanish.
Im not too worried about disrupting anything, these bees work for a living, he does pollination all over the valley with them, so as soon as the first fruit trees are blooming they'll bee gone.

When he brought them here in late summer, we had pine(I think) trees blooming, so they were good to go then. Some of them hung out inside my water faucet and were kinda washed out when I soaked my feed. I rescued quite a few of them. Same at the water trough.
I'm also getting quite good in catching them in a towel in the house and release them outside.
I'll try the sugar water for sure!!
But I still don't get it why they're literally IN the hay nets and also around the haybales in the pole barn.....if it was only alfalfa and grass hay I would understand, but they're also in the oat hay...no blossoms for sure.......strange.....

[DimSum]

It's probably warm in the hay net...

[deserthorsewoman]

Just thought about it...the farmer has cows..who frequently escape and come to visit....we have them eat our pasture down, when we got it it was quite overgrown, and now his bees.....hmmmmm