Made up a batch of sugar syrup. Gave half to one hive, half to the other hive. Both have top feeders which I use all the time.
One hive can't get enough and finishes it overnight. The other hive hasn't touched it. They look very strong otherwise, but need to build up the stores.
Anyone have any ideas why they would not be taking the syrup??
Bees will not take syrup for several reasons, one of which is thickness of syrup. A few ideas:
1. Add Honey B Healthy, cider vinegar, or lemon grass oil to the syrup. This changes the acidity level and makes it more attractive to the bees.
2. Thin the mix, 2:1 is great in the fall for building stores but as the weather gets colder the syrup gets more gel like and the bees will quit taking it. Thinning it to 5:3, 1.5:1, or even 1:1 should bring the bees back to it.
3. Change your feeder style. I've never had good luck with Miller feeders (Hive Top), they're always more trouble than they're worth, IMO. I would suggest either a gallon jar, a gallon paint can, or a frame type feeder with ladder.
4. Is the hive that's not building up getting robbed? Feeding a weak hive, by itself, can trigger robbing. I always provide so community feeding when focusing on a weak hive to deminish robbing. The tendency is for the entire bee yard to access the community feeder, including the weak hive being fed internally, but the community feeder atrracts bees from every hive and distracts them from the weak hive....as long as the community feeder is maintained. Let it run out for a few days and the rest of the yard will start robbing the weak hive again.