It's been a long and bitterly cold winter so far and it seems to be far from over. Today was one of the mildest days with the temperatures getting up to 47 degrees, but the overnight prediction tonight is zero, with dangerous wind chills for the next 48 hours. I have some concern how these unusually cold temperatures are going to affect the survival of my fruit trees and vines as well as my bees. The bees were still alive when I last was able to check a few weeks ago but it has not gotten warm enough to do more than to check to see if there is some minimal amount of movement.
Here hardened drifts of snow left over from some of our snow falls so far run along the west fence of the garden, coated with a shadow of dirt apparently having been carried by some of the high winds we have been having.
My two hives are shown here. I have bales of straw stacked to the west and north of the hives hoping to block the worst of the winter winds. I have taken the time that I've been confined to the indoors to construct some nuc boxes -- six medium boxes that will make up three double-box nuc hives -- if I have bees surviving to put in them. I am also contemplating maybe making some kind of bait hives, though I doubt there are many feral hives to collect swarms from in my area. I also plan to start some mead brewing soon and I am gathering the material for that.
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