Winter Hive inspection (Part 2 of 2)

My single hives were completely buried in the snow with only the top of the roof showing. I wonder that the insulating factor of snow is. I imagine that it helps a lot for keeping the bees insulated from the wind. The lid is very tight fitting so I am concerned about moisture buildup. I do not want the hive to be wet. I have 3 inches of wood shavings on top of the inner cover; which is covered with wire mesh and a light cotton patch so that the shavings dust does not fall into the hive.

When I lifted off the roof of the insulated box there was ice on some of the seams of insulation.  This is an indication of the amount of moisture in the boxes. I checked the wood shavings and sure enough they were soaked, so I removed all of the shavings.

I took a quick peek into the hives and it was just buzzing. The bees do not even seem to be clustered and there were still plenty of honey stores in each of the single boxes.  It is really satisfying to see to that all my work to build this insulation box is paying off. I quickly closed the inner covers and put a fresh layer of shavings on top. This should last for the remainder of the winter (according to some ground hogs we still have 4 weeks to go).

I cleared the front of the hive so that the sun could warm it up and so that the bees could clean out some of their dead. Most importantly, I want the moisture to come out of the front of the hives (even if hot air rises). The temperature differences should create a draw of moisture.

I am really happy with my colonies. They all seem to be strong and they seem to have enough supplies to last through the remainder of the winter. I will keep an eye on them as always and help with what I can.

Winter Hive inspection (Part 1 of 2)

The weather has been fairly cooperative for the last couple of days. Yesterday there was a high of +2C and my one hive had been doing some spring cleaning. I could tell because there were a lot of bees scattered in front of the entrance and even 20 feet away. I assume this is because the snow is fairly crusted and that the bodies easily slide across it.

 This morning was cloudless and windless and the sun was really beating down. The temperature was still only -2C. I thought it would be a perfect time to open up my homemade mouse guard / entrance reducer and scrap out the dead bees with a thin piece of wood.

My two full-sized hives had very different amounts of dead bees. My strongest hive had a significant amount more of dead bees and it also has been the most active. This picture shows the different amounts of dead bees that I cleared out. I took the dead bees and threw them with my shovel. I would say that the larger hive had five times more. Maybe the smaller amount of dead bees did not have all of their dead "at their doorstep" so I was not able to quickly scrape them out.

 The interesting thing about this hive is that it went into its winter cluster much later than all of my other hives. It also had a massive population later into the fall. It would take in 4 liters of syrup in 24 hrs. The hive also was very heavy with honey stores but I kept feeding them anyways. Another possibility with the large difference of the winter kill may be the fact that they have different winter wraps (but I have my doubts because both wraps have an equal insulation(R) value; one is just much quicker to put on). The homemade wrap is on the hive which experienced the higher amount of death. The other hive has a bee cozy wrap on (Which was slick to install!).

Later in the afternoon there were bees from both hives going out for cleansing flights and the temperature was only +3C! They must have really had to go to venture out in that “cold”. Some bees landed on the snow and then would fly around a bit more and then return to their hive.

I also checked my buried single box hives. They are both alive! I will include details and pictures in Part2!

Pre-Spring Cleanup?

I checked out my hives yesterday and my strongest hive seems to be pulling out some of their dead. What impresses me is that they seem to start pulling out their dead as soon as the weather is -5C or higher and when it is nice and sunny out. I never thought that they would venture out of the hive if it was not nicer than +5C. To clarify, it does not appear as though they are going on cleansing flights. It appears as if they just push the dead far enough out of the entrance so that the wind will eventually take the bodies off the landing. The mouse guard looks rather plugged, so I may pull it off on a nice day and scrape out as much as possible. I want the bees to be able to get out if there ever is a nice enough day to go for a cleansing flight!

Ps: my broken thumb is feeling better; but is far from being back to normal.

That Hurt...

Two nights ago I received a major whack in the hand from a metal shafted broom while playing broomball. My right thumb immediately started to hurt and blood started to build up under the nail.

I went to emerge and had some X-rays done. Sure enough my bone which is above my uppermost knuckle is broken or cracked as the doctor put it. It is not fractured, but completely broken.

This is going to cause many annoyances over the next couple of weeks! That is my 4th broken bone... I hope it is my last.

(If my posts seem shorter, it is because I cannot type anymore)