Spring formula (1:1) syrup

The red hive is active, and bees were hanging around the compost heap which is 10 feet in front of the hives, so placed a pan of cedar clippings onto which I poured a couple of cups of 1:1 spring-formula sugar syrup, which the bees are very enthusiastically cosuming. The yellow hive is almost completely inactive: we may have lost them, in recent weeks.