End of January
Its nearly the end of the month- and the past week its been spring-like (though now, as I write this, the rain is pouring down). It looks to me like 10 hives have made it through the winter, and 1 died off due to yellow jackets, and starvation. 9 out of the 10 hives are very active, and poured out of their hives this week, and brought back yellow pollen. The only plant that I have seen flowering this early are the hazlenuts in the valley- but Im not sure this is what they are carrying.
I have been going through all my frames and hives this year, trying to get them all repaired, clean, and ready to go. I scrape each frame, and each super, of burr comb and propylis. In the past, I have burnt the supers with a torch, but not this year. I am repainting them all, and repairing any that are broken, or that don't have flat tops or bottoms (seemed like a big problem when I was harvesting and they found holes in pulled supers and started robbing).
I have gone through a few hives quickly, but not pulled any frames. Two have queens from Susan Colby, and I am told that other's who have had these queens lost them immediately-with weeks- so I am hoping this is not the case.
I have fed 60# of cane sugar to 10 hives. They go through it pretty quickly. To do so, I added a 2 inch spacer below the ventilation boxes. I've noticed that the bees are now clustering in this space, which makes it difficult to access. I've also noticed that a lot of the sugar dumps through, even as liguid (not sure how) onto the mite boards. Maybe paper is not that great of an idea. Maybe next year some sort of shelf would be better, which they can climb up on. I am not sure why using paper is that great of an idea. I'm not even sure what they do with the sugar- do they liquify it and store it? Or do they just eat it and store it in their bodies? There were puddles in one hive, on the bottom board, of syrup- so somehow it gets liquid.
I am convinced that the ventilation tops are super important. All hives have survived, and I am not opening them and finding them moldy and wet. They are dry. The top covers are wet, which indicates that water is wicking through, which is good, but its not where the bees are. When I open the hives, they are active, and covering the top frames, for the most part. It might be the mild year, but I think the sugar- not something i have done before- and the tops are helping them survive. At least I know that they are not going to die off because they starved or got wet, and I've seen both.
I have been going through all my frames and hives this year, trying to get them all repaired, clean, and ready to go. I scrape each frame, and each super, of burr comb and propylis. In the past, I have burnt the supers with a torch, but not this year. I am repainting them all, and repairing any that are broken, or that don't have flat tops or bottoms (seemed like a big problem when I was harvesting and they found holes in pulled supers and started robbing).
I have gone through a few hives quickly, but not pulled any frames. Two have queens from Susan Colby, and I am told that other's who have had these queens lost them immediately-with weeks- so I am hoping this is not the case.
I have fed 60# of cane sugar to 10 hives. They go through it pretty quickly. To do so, I added a 2 inch spacer below the ventilation boxes. I've noticed that the bees are now clustering in this space, which makes it difficult to access. I've also noticed that a lot of the sugar dumps through, even as liguid (not sure how) onto the mite boards. Maybe paper is not that great of an idea. Maybe next year some sort of shelf would be better, which they can climb up on. I am not sure why using paper is that great of an idea. I'm not even sure what they do with the sugar- do they liquify it and store it? Or do they just eat it and store it in their bodies? There were puddles in one hive, on the bottom board, of syrup- so somehow it gets liquid.
I am convinced that the ventilation tops are super important. All hives have survived, and I am not opening them and finding them moldy and wet. They are dry. The top covers are wet, which indicates that water is wicking through, which is good, but its not where the bees are. When I open the hives, they are active, and covering the top frames, for the most part. It might be the mild year, but I think the sugar- not something i have done before- and the tops are helping them survive. At least I know that they are not going to die off because they starved or got wet, and I've seen both.
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