That's another wrap!

Two weeks ago I put the wrap on the hives because the nights were consistantly chilly. For my two monster hives I pushed them together and put some R5 insulation all around but not in between the hives and then I wrapped it with some used tar paper. I also placed a box and shavings on top of their inner cover. These shavings should absorb any moisture that does not escape.

My monster hives(each gave 200lbs) are wrapped an ready for winter.

A few days later I also wrapped my 4 hives at my home. I used a 'bee cozy' wrap for each one and I put insulation on the inner cover. Mouse guards have been on all hives for several weeks now. A few days after putting on my last covers, this is what I woke up to! For the first time ever, I had my covers on before the first snow.

First snow with covers

 A few days later it was almost 10 deg during the day. I placed all of my syrup from cleaning up the feeders into a plastic bottom and my bees were cleaning it up.

Bees foraging on hardened syrup.

The bees are still busy during the day when it is around 10deg. But I think winter is on its way and they should enjoy their freedom while they can.

Hives with 'bee cozy' on ready for winter.

This signals the end of the season, there is nothing left for me to do but hope that my preperations will hold the bees through the winter. On clear winter days, I do take off the mouse guard and scape out the dead bees that may block the entrance.

Philips: Urban Beehive

An 'urban' bee hive

It appears as though some 'designers' have gone on an artistic spree of epic proportions without consulting a beekeeper. I will have to admit that their design (which I hope is purely a concept); looks pretty cool.
This looks like a cool idea but lets just try to imagine how you would harvest the honey from this hive when it opens up into your house.

It mounts onto a window pane hive above the street (because that is what urban settings are like I suppose). The bees have an exit which is not at the bottom of the hive and luckily they have a couple of plants in a flower pot to provide them with pollen.

'Techincal Schematic'

This is a list of problems I can foresee:

1. How do you open the hive in your house without causing a massive panic?

2. How do you harvest the honey? You just pull it out?

3. How do you treat the bees?

4. How is the hive expanded?

This is just the begining of the questions I have about this hive; which goes to show that it is purely a romantic artistic concept.

Check out what they have to say about it on their own website. This is where I got all of the pictures for this post.
Philips: Urban Beehive Webpage

Fall Time: Treatments done

It has been a busy summer extracting a lot of honey and preparing the girls for the fall. A few days ago there was a lot of action at the hives because it was a nice day.
These four hives have taken in more than 120 lbs of sugar in the form of 2:1 syrup(sugar:water). This is an incredible amount. Now the hives are really heavy, which is going to be good for winter survival.

Lots of activity

Some drones are still around?!

Took off my custom mouse guard to let the bees clean out.

Broken hive stand! Collapsed under 200+ lbs per hive.

Moldy Wax? Too much moisture in hive.

Since the hive stand collapsed in the summer, I think this caused both hives to have extra moisture. I fixed the stand and placed it on some cement blocks. These bees really worked hard this year.

Fixed the hive stand so that the hives are off the ground.

Sorry to my few readers for the excessively long time between posts. The outdoor work is almost done! All the treatments are done for my hives now and I will be wrapping them in the next weeks.