8:35am. Here’s what I see when I look out the window.
 |
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED.
- NOTE TO SELF: Remove insulated inner covers by the end of March.
April is way too late. So is April 16th.
Here’s a question I’ve heard a few times about the insulated inner covers we use: “Won’t the bees build a lot of burr comb over the top bars?” The answer is: “No, because the bees don’t build much comb in the winter.” But they sure do build comb once spring arrives, and you better get the covers off before the bees start bringing in pollen. You better remove any rims (or ekes) that are placed on the hives for dry sugar feeding too. We were too busy with work to remove them until today, and look what we found under one of the covers (in our one hive that happens to have follower-boards):
That’s about 3 inches of burr comb under the insulated inner cover (flipped upside down) — several large mounds of comb. It wouldn’t have been as bad if we’d removed the deep rim a couple weeks ago, but we didn’t, so it’s bad. Lesson learned.
Read on . . . »
It may have been too early to remove the mouse-proofing mesh from our hives, but I did it anyway because the entrance of one hive was clogged with dead winter bees and I couldn’t clear the entrance without removing the mesh. I also noticed the bees — at the 3:33 mark of the video — bringing in the first pollen of the year.
I noticed our bees drinking dirty water last May. They seem to love the minerals from the dark composted soil in our raised garden beds. They’ve been at it again for the past few days.
I keep hearing from beekeepers online about their bees bringing in pollen. None of those beekeepers live in Newfoundland. We didn’t see our bees bring in any pollen until April 13th last year, so we probably have a while to wait yet. The most exciting thing I can report is that our bees were flying around the yard today like gang busters. At 12°C (possibly the warmest day we’ve had this year), how could they resist?
At least we don’t have varroa mites in Newfoundland.
We gave our four hives some dry sugar 62 days ago. Here’s some riveting footage that shows how that’s working out for us (so far so good).
The only thing we’ll do differently next year is lay sugar over either the front or back half of the frames. That way the bees can access the sugar without any trouble and there’s still plenty of room to add a full-sized pollen patty. As seen in the video, adding pollen patties is tricky with all that sugar in the way. And we won’t spray the newspaper next time either.
Previous posts in this continuing saga: Dry Sugar Feeding, Dry Sugar Feeding Update and Dry Sugar Check Up and Pollen Patties.
It was warm enough today (1°C / 34°F) to take a peek inside our four hives and add some pollen patties. I didn’t have to top up the dry sugar that was added 46 days ago. The bees in the foundationless hive are low on honey, as I suspected, and have eaten through the most sugar, but they have enough to keep them going for a while. The bees in the conventional hives have eaten some of their sugar, but I still think they would have been fine without it. I could see several frames full of honey in each of the hives. The bees in the conventional hives were clustering above the top bars by the end of December, but a lack of honey doesn’t seem to be the reason. Okay, then, here’s how it played out in video form. First, a short version in HD that cuts to the chase.
File this one under “Another Slow News Day.”
What do rotting honey bee corpses look like in the middle of February after being buried in snow for a couple months? This:
 |
We had a heavy rain storm over the weekend that melted and washed away most of the snow and revealed the bottom entrances of the hives that have been buried for much of the new year. I knew I’d see more dead bees. The old-timers seem to fly outside the hive and die. Several hundred of them are scattered around the yard, little black dots everywhere on the crusty snow. Sometimes the dead are removed from the hive, but I get the impression corpse-removal becomes a lower priority in the dead of winter when it’s hard enough just to stay alive. The bottom board of our one foundationless hive is nearly blocked with dead bees. Dead bees are accumulating in the other three hives, too, though not as bad.
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON MARCH 08, 2012.
Yup. It’s still winter.
I hear that honey bees in the UK are starting to bring in pollen. Well, goody for them.
Read on . . . »
Latest Comments