2013-01-26: First Visit in the New Year

Earlier in January there was a thaw that ate all the snow that had filled the bee yard.  January thaws can be very useful to the bees since a period of warm weather allows them to fly outside of the hive and make cleansing flights where they void all of the waste that they have retained rather than voiding inside their hives.  The waste should be yellow.  Dark brown is indicative of the disease, Nosema, which is essentially bee diarrhea.

My mother had checked on the hives at that time and reported that bees were coming out of all of the hives and making cleansing flights and painting the remaining snow yellow.

By th e time of this visit to the beeyard, Winter had returned an a light layer of snow as on the ground.  The hives seemed to be in good shape.  I did clean up the dead bees that had collected at the lower entrances.  Purple and DarkGreen had the most to clean up.  This will be something to keep an eye on, but not necessarily a sign of impending doom.

2012-12-30: More Snow

More snow had fallen before I visited the hives again to wish them a happy New Year.

The usefulness of upper entrances in Winter is very evident in this photo.

2012-12-25: Christmas in the Beeyard

A winter storm with high winds had come through just before Christmas.  While it did make it a white Christmas in the beeyard, the wind had knocked over the stack of honey supers and blown the outer cover off of Purple.

 

I carted up the supers to store in the barn.  I think the comb was largely undamaged, which I was worried about since wax is very brittle when its cold.

I then brushed the snow off of the snow that had fallen on the wool in the top insulatory box on Purple.  The top outer cover was placed back on top with a cinder block to keep it in place.

The bees seemed to be ok in their section of the hive.  Hopefully not too much extra moisture had made its way into the hive.

2012-12-02: The Last Wrap

I visited the beeyard to wrap Yellow.

Yep, that’s one wrapped hive.

Note the little flap of paper over the top entrance.  I made it in hopes that it will keep some of the weather out.

2012-11-21: Under Wraps

  The task de jour was to make sure each hive had an box filled with wool on top above the inner cover and then wrap the hives with tar paper.  The wool box on top acts as insulation while allowing warm moist air from the cluster of bees to rise during the winter and disperse through the wool instead hitting a cold service and forming condensation which could drip on the bees, chilling them.  The tar paper helps to keep wind from entering the cracks between the boxes, adds a little insulation, and the black helps to absorb heat from the sun.

Its an awkward and time consuming chore.  I got all but one done before I ran out of time and tar paper.

I also noticed that something appears to have been digging around some of the pavers under some of the hives.  Skunk maybe?