Thank you Bluebee.
Yes, I feed that way when needed. Those picture are from one of my hives. The key with dry sugar is to place it after normal activity has slowed down with cold weather. If not, bees may begin dragging out each granule of sugar and discard it outside the hive.
I much prefer fondant but the cost has gone up over the years and sugar is a bit less expensive.
Last year I had some rather large piles on some full size hives. I left the sugar on through spring and the bees hollowed out the sugar and then built comb inside the sugar cavity. Had nice brood going and all. But I did not have the camera handy.
If the bees are starving, they tend to gravitate to the top of the hive and under the inner cover. This way they save energy by being where the trapped heat is. And they will slowly eat the sugar all winter. I have saved many hives this way. And I know without it, many of the stacked nucs would run out of stores.
