After the bee class on Saturday, April 12, in Bend, OR I decided that sumps were a good thing and asked Ken, the hive builder, to consider them. Not only did he consider, he adapted boxes that I had for both hives to be sumps, which included constructing an entrance door for me and as an extra, he created sugar feeders to be placed inside. What an amazing friend I have in Ken! He's done research on sugar feeding and agrees that seems to be one of the best ways to care for bees' food needs during early spring and late fall. With a sump, one can insert/remove feeders easily; check mite population using sticky boards, take pictures of the hive interior...all very nice. See these pictures, which show it all--or most of it. Inside hive pictures when I open the door, later.
At some point I plan to summarize the notes I took at the bee class--the Central Oregon Bee Club is quite an active, helpful group and I was happy and fortunate to attend their annual spring class for advanced beekeepers.
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| Sump with feeder/front view |
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| Sugar feeder inside sump |
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| Side view of sump/door for entrance |
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| Opening the side door |
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| Hive helpers to add sump on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014 |
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| The finished look |
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