Here’s what I see at this moment.
First snow. (Nov. 3, 2010.)
It’s time to wrap the hives.
November 2018 Postscript: I had planned to delete this post and any other posts that don’t provide any useful information, but the some of the comments in these old posts are worth keeping around. So that’s why I haven’t deleted this post.
Tis that time…sad to see it but I’m sure you will wrap them nicely and they will come out in the spring ready to give’r. I look forward to seeing more as the winter passes along.
I read that snow is a good insulation against the cold – is that right ?
Where I live in NZ it is temperate, this part of the country does not get snow, the lowest temp during winter would be -4 or 5C, further south gets colder and as the bottom of the South Is `next stop Antarctica` hives need to be protected more.
I read that snow is a good insulation against the cold — is that right?
That’s what I’ve heard too. Winters in St. John’s, Newfoundland, are generally wet and, well, unpleasant. I suspect the wet and the wind will affect the hives the most.
Where I live in NZ it is temperate…
New Zealand doesn’t show up on my visitors map. That’s no good. I’ll see what I can do about that.
I’ve been too busy working for my so-called living to wrap the hives or get out in my backyard, or even read comments. But I plan to wrap the hives today. And as usual, I have no real idea exactly how I’m going to do it. I think I’m just going to strap on the tar paper (or felt, whatever it’s called) instead of nailing it or stapling it on.
UPDATE: It went up to 16° C today and the bees came back to life. I put out two Boardman feeders on top of each hive and they sucked it down fast. Too many bees around to wrap the hive. I’ll wait until a slightly colder day.
ok, it is november 6, 2010 and the bees are bringing in pollen today. Where in the heck are they finding pollen around here this time of year. It dropped to -3 the other night.
Crazy….
I know, it’s wacky. My bees were clustered for a while and then yesterday they got out and some managed to come back with pollen, a white pollen, wherever that’s coming from.
they have takend down another 3 liters of sugar syrup over the last 2 days. I’m debating if I should give them some more with teh jar feeder inside the box. I also had two boardman feeders going the last two days too so they had 3 feed sources.
they have taken down another 3 litres of sugar syrup over the last 2 days.
Mine emptied both 500ml jars yesterday. I added two more today. I have the insulation on top of the inner covers, so I’m not removing the outer covers until next spring. I just don’t want to mess with the hives. I keep the Boardman feeders on top of the hives until it gets cold again.
I didn’t think I’d be mixing syrup this late in the year.
I just put a wrap around Hive #1, but my wrap is only 2 feet wide, so I may have to put another wrap on the top and overlap it. I used a staple gun like in the Long Lane video. I got it on video, but it was getting dark, so I don’t know how much there is to see. If the weather isn’t too bad this weekend, I’ll completely wrap up both hives.