Winter! Mouse guard cleaning

See dead bees in snow!

It is just crazy to see how much time has gone by since I have posted. I am sorry for the disconnect. You can tell that it is winter time in the bee yard because there are so few articles in the newspapers about beekeeping! It is rather depressing. I suppose it gives us time to catch up on our magazine subscription reading.

Custom mouse guard: with bee bodies stuck in between the nails

For the last 2-3 weeks in my area we have had sub zero temperatures, meaning that the girls have not been able to get out of the hive and fly. This leaves a fairly big pile of dead bees waiting to be pulled out of the hive to clean up the hive. When there is a nice day(I typically do this twice per winter season), I take off the entrance reducer/mouse guard and clean the dead bees off the bottom board.

Scaped out dead bees

Moisture buildup

My side hive which I combined to make a two box hive right before winter, had a fair amount of moisture build up on the bottom board. To counter this moisture, I put a wood chip on the edge of the hive cover to allow more air to escape and be exchanged from the hive. When I removed the mouse guard to scrape out the dead bees, I noticed that there were some alive bees mixed in with the dead ones! That is because this is the only hive that I do not have a slatted rack for! Which would have allowed for an air space (which helps with moisture and allows the bees to hang lower in the hive).