Starving Bees

What do you do if you screwed up and you find your bees light with stores, and too late in the season to feed ? Well this can easily happen, especially if you were counting on a late nectar flow that did not materialize. So now its too cold to feed, and your hives are light. First off, you hope for a warm enough day to crack the inner cover. Which I hate doing in the winter, but they're dead anyway if you don't do something. If you have time you can make a sugar fondant to go on the top bars, I find this un-necessary. I've managed to pull hives through that were right out of honey. By popping the inner cover and pouring sugar across the top bars, and then also on the top of the inner cover you can give them a chance. Good luck !
As always, its always better to leave enough honey on, but sometimes nature does not make it easy.