In this vlog, the beekeeper recounts rescuing a mini colony that had run out of food and appeared near death. He describes covering the bees with 2:1 invert sugar syrup, both by dribbling syrup onto frames and feeding through a top feeder, and then adjusting the hive entrance to deter robbing bees. Over the following weeks he observes signs of recovery: robbing subsides, pollen‑foraging resumes, the original pink‑marked queen remains alive with a healthy brood pattern, and stores increase. He reflects on the mistake that led to the crisis, emphasizes the value of sharing failures, and offers this emergency feeding technique as a last‑ditch option for beekeepers facing similar starvation scenarios. The video ends with a call to subscribe for more practical beekeeping tips.
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This colony was close to death 3 weeks ago. I came in, they'd run out of food. There were no eggs, no brood. The queen was in a really shocking state, but worse than that, there was no food whatsoever. The bees were so bad that they were shaking the back of their wings, trembling just to try and stay alive. And although it was my fault that they didn't have enough food, what I did at that time when I saw them in that state was to cover them in sugar syrup, and I mean Cover them. I was taking out frames, I was pouring sugar syrup on them. If I had a little sprayer, I would have sprayed them and covered every single bee with sugar syrup. Up here in this feeder, I put 2:1 invert sugar syrup and I took the metal off, dribbled it down into the bars to make sure that any bees that were alive down there knew there was syrup for them upstairs. I came back the very next day to double-check on them and there was quite a lot of robbing activity going on, or at least it looked like robbing activity. Frenzied activity all the way around the front and the back, and I tweaked things, I moved things around, I took this entrance and closed it, and I twisted the hive round just to confuse any of the robbers. And I knew it was quite a cold day at that point as well, so the robbers went back to their own beehives and they left this one alone. About a week later, I came back and I started to see little bees coming back in with pollen. They were bringing protein back into the hive, and I know from personal experience that it's not robbing bees that bring in pollen, it meant that something was stirring, something was still going on inside this hive here. Now it's been very busy here at Black Mountain Honey and I've done nothing with this colony for about 3 weeks. We're just up here doing a few videos today and I went inside and I could not believe it. But not only is the colony back on track, but the original queen, the pink marked queen, is still there laying eggs. Nice brood pattern. There's a good amount of stores in this beehive here. There's not that many bees, but once that fresh round of brood emerges and fills this colony back up again, they're going to be as good as they were before I made the really terrible mistake and let them run out of food. But I think it's a useful lesson, and it's something that I'm always really keen to do at Black Mountain Honey, which is share my mistakes and try not to feel too, too embarrassed about them, but to give you the techniques and the advice to help you fix your own bees if you make mistakes like this. So if your bees get anywhere near close to this and you're worried, you could drizzle a bit of sugar syrup on them. People say to me, wow, that's crazy, you shouldn't do that, the bees are going to chill, the bees are going to get cold, and Yeah, it's kind of a little bit past that because they were minutes away from dying. This was a last ditch attempt to get them back to life. And as you can see, it's worked. So I'll always do that. I'll make the mistake. I'll show you what I'm doing. If it works, great. I'll show you. If it doesn't work, I'll show you it again. I hope you enjoyed that video. If you want more useful tips on how to get the best out of your bees, definitely hit the subscribe button.
