All the articles I read talk about opening the hive during the middle to late part of the day, with the idea being that most of the foraging workers will be out.
With that in mind, I put together the sugar syrup today and headed out to install it around 3pm.
It was a hot, sunny day, and there was a small beard on each hive, as well as a boiling cloud streaming in and out of the front of the hive.
It’s probably just me, but the hives seem a little more aggressive now than they did when we installed them. I get a lot more close flybys than I used to, and bees often get stuck in my hair.
Anyway, I popped the lid, looked inside at the spot where the sugar syrup goes, and immediately decided that I should do this some other time. There were about 75 bees all climbing in and out of the holes where the jars go, and I did not relish the thought of anybody getting irritated that I crushed a friend. So, I put the lid back on, put the syrup in the shop, and resolved to come back closer to sunset to do the jars.
I went back out at 9pm or so (it stays light crazy late this time of year), popped the lid, and there were still a ton of bees crawling all over in there. What to do, what to do…
So I took one of the jars, and sprinkled sugar water liberally over all the bees I could see. Then I carefully put the jars into each hole, giving the bees a chance to back off, and making sure that nobody was halfway in. I think I was successful at installing without crushing anyone, keeping fingers crossed.
There were about 20 or 30 bees still outside in the jar area, but there’s nothing to be done for that. There’s a hole in the lid where they can get out, and I’ve never had much of a problem with finding dead bees trapped in there, so I guess they figure it out. Plus, there’s lots of sugar syrup on the outsides of the jars — it’s a sticky process.
Both hives had the same thing; lots of bees that were hanging out waiting for a handout, sprinkling sugar syrup on them seemed to cool them out.