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).

Snow! What the heck??

Yes, we have some overnight flurries tonight. Which is quite weird but not uncommon for south western Ontario.

Christmas much?

Hand-packed snow man

I was checking the long term forecast and it was looking pretty bleak. Luckily my treatments all end on Saturday. So I will remove my formic acid pad from my weaker hive and add on a hive top feeder to see if they will take some feed in. My two other hives which I have at my home property have some 42 day old Apivar strips in.

Long term grim forecast

I will be removing my various mite treatments and then I intend to do an Oxalic Acid treatment (Trickle Method). This is recommended by the ministry of agriculture in the fall when there is the least amount of brood rearing; typically after a formic acid treatment. It involves mixing 35g of Oxalic Acid dihydrate crystals per 1L of 50% syrup. Then using a syringe, apply 50mL onto the cluster of bees. In a two box colony, apply 25mL on each box. It is supposed to be done on a cool day where the majority of the bees would be in the box.