Spring Inspection

Last week, the temperature got up to around 50 degrees, so I went in for a quick inspection.

The bees were out on their "cleansing flights" to get rid of waste they'd been saving up for weeks or even months (to avoid dirtying the inside of the hive) and there were a few hundred dead bees outside the front of the hive where some of the girls hadn't quite made it back in the chilly winter air before running out of energy. The picture doesn't show them very clearly, but you can see some yellowish spots where the bees relieved themselves and darker spots where some of the bees fell into the snow and died, leaving a little melted pit as their body heat was drained off by the snow.

I first had a look inside Meg (the closer of the two hives in the above picture).  I could tell there were bees in there since they'd buzz when I knocked on the side of the hive, but I couldn't see any through the top of the top box.  I pulled off the top super (which is totally full of honey) and found a small cluster of bees about the size of a grapefruit near the back of the hive!  I put the top super right back on and closed up the hive -- they're in a great spot with lots of honey above and around them, and I didn't want to stress them out any more than I had to.

The bees are probably raising brood right now inside their cluster, so it's important that they have plenty of food within close reach for those cold winter days when they can't walk far in the hive before freezing and won't leave the brood to die unless absolutely necessary.

The other hive didn't seem at all in "winter mode" and instead of clustering tightly, they were active across three different supers!  The top of all three supers looked like the below picture -- it was like there were a full 30 frames of bees in there!

You can see some of the girls flying around to get at me, although most were smart enough to stay in the hive where it's much warmer.

For whatever reason, it looks like Jo has totally broken out of the winter cluster and the girls are running all over the top three supers.  Actually, when I first opened the hive, I noticed that the top two supers were quite heavy with honey, but since the bees were so active at the very top of the hive, I moved the third super (about 1/3 full of honey) to the top.  They quickly took over this top super too.

I don't think this move was smart -- the top two supers were so heavy that no matter where the smaller brood nest is, I think they'd have been fine, but initially I didn't realize that the bees were active throughout two full supers and I thought they were stuck at the very top of the hive.  Adding a less-full super on top of the hive could entice them to move up further and then die when they run out of honey, but with only a month or so left until good weather (we hope!) and such full supers, I think they'll be fine.  Of course, I can't just put it back the way it was because the bees are now active in the top 3 (instead of just 2) supers, so I'll see what happens and learn from it.  Worst case, I end up with the 4 hives I intended (when ordering 3 packages) instead of the 5 I'm half-fearing.

I've got a great new site for bees near my work, but it's far from home so my wife wouldn't be involved much.  Last night, there was some talk about leaving a hive or two at my brother's house, so we might just end up with 2-3 at his house and the 3 new hives at the new location.  I wouldn't move them until May I think, so there's no rush to make a decision!

A Honeybee Hive in Winter

It's been 5 months and spring is in the air!  The queens are laying again, the girls are out on cleansing flights on warm days and some of them are even starting to despair at the impending job of spring cleaning!

I had intended to describe buttoning up of the hives, but somehow it never happened.  Here's the short version:

Back in November, both hives were heavy with honey and ready to wait out the cold winter.  I reduced the entrance down to a 1" slit and added a metal grate to keep out mice.  Then I added an upper entrance to allow airflow through the hive -- this is critical to prevent condensation that will drip down onto the bees and chill them dead!  It also gives them a route out of the hive when snow blocks the lower entrance.

Finally I wrapped the hive with wax-covered cardboard and threw on a heavy brick to keep the top on in windy weather.  The black cardboard gets quite warm in the sun even on a very cold day and helps to add a little heat to the hive.  It doesn't help too much though since research has shown that the inside of a hive is only around 3 degrees higher than ambient temperature, largely because the bees need constant airflow through the hive to keep condensation from causing problems.  The bees stay warm by huddling together in a ball and "shivering" or beating their wing muscles without moving their wings to generate heat.  They keep the temperature inside the ball well above 70F all winter long and later in the winter when eggs and brood are being raised they keep the temperature no lower than 95F!

Here's a picture of the hives after a winterfull of snow:

Both hives are still alive and well, and I'll go over my recent visit in a future post (well before another 5 months go by I promise!)