The Bees are starving

Given the less than perfect environment bees have to live in, its not surprising that there are times where food is in short supply and now is one of them.
At the moment, although the countryside is green and verdant, there are few flowers around. Fewer flowers mean less nectar. Less nectar means less honey. Less honey the bees are hungry and might not have the stores to last the winter.
An organisation called the National Bee Unit recently issued an email to all bee keepers registered with it saying:-

In many areas of the UK nectar flows have ceased and reports are coming in from Regional and Seasonal Bee Inspectors of starving bee colonies, where the beekeeper is not aware that the bees are severely short of food, or the colony(s) have already starved to death.

By now any honey harvesting should have stopped, honey supers taken off and a bee keeper should be checking to see if if the hive has enough honey stores to get it through the winter. If not steps should be taken to feed the bees.
'How do you feed bees?' I am often asked.
'With a very small spoon' I say churning out Standard Bee Joke No 394.

The stuff bees are fed with at this time of year is normally sugar syrup made up with 2lb of sugar to 1pt of water.
The syrup is then put in feeders of which there are a huge variety of shapes and sizes. I use what are called rapid feeders

The feeder is put on top of the crown board of the hive and has a cone in the middle . The bees climb up from the hive over the top of the cone and feed on the syrup in the resovoir.  The cone is ridged to help the bees climb up it and has a plastic cup over it so the bees don't drown in the syrup and there is a lid on the feeder.

What is called an eke is then put on top of the hive so the roof can go back on.

There are different opinions on how much to feed. A very experienced bee keeper I know says he gives his bees a gallon a hive and no more whereas another says they should be fed until they don't take it up anymore.

Each feeder takes about 2 pints and most of the Ravensden bees took this up in 2 days but one hive has scarcely touched it.

Feeding also gives a bee keeper the opportunity to give the bees a pre winter 'tonic' which is added to the syrup.

I use something called Vitafeed Gold, It is  'A biostimulant, enhanced liquid feed. Based on beet extract and molasses it strongly stimulates the development of colony population, particularly if weak'.

It also combats the seven signs of aging and gives the bees lovely glossy dandruff free bristles, and an extra 10% off their favourite sofa in the DSF Winter Sale, because they're worth it.