Bringing hives out of winter

I removed most of the winter hive parts today, which means the straw bale windbreak, the tar paper covers and the quilt box and sugar box on each hive.  I don't have pictures of those removals but did take pictures of the bees at the front of the hives before I got started.  This is the bottom entrance of the north hive.  I think it got up to 80 degrees so the bees were very active.  Lots of flowers blooming now, and  my pear and apple trees are just starting to come into bloom.

Bees were still actively using the top entrance of the North hive as seen here.  When I opened this box up, the sugar box was completely empty of sugar but had a lot of combs built in it --four or five random combs with a lot of drone brood in them.  I removed some of it and shook the bees in to the hive, but left the rest on and laid it aside on my unused stand so the remaining comb, which was attached to the bottom of the quilt box, would hang underneath, thinking the bees would leave it in the evening.  However, when I checked it the next day there were still a lot of bees tightly covering the comb.  I guess I should open the hive back up and remove those comb as well and shake the bees into the hive.  I am a little concerned that the queen may be among them as they seem so determined to remain there.

The bottom entrance of the middle hive is the most active of the three as it was all last year.  They are bearding a bit on the front of the hive even when the temperatures are only in the 70s.  This hive also had no trace of the sugar that I put on in November, but had not built any comb in the sugar box.  I suspect that this hive is packed full of bees and will be likely to swarm this Spring.  I would be wise to have a plan to split it as soon as it is reasonable to do so -- as soon as there are enough drones flying and they are starting to make queen cells.

The South hive was also quite busy but not quite as much as the other two.  This hive, too, had consumed all of the sugar that had been placed on the hive in November.  There weren't a lot of bees on the top bars when I took the sugar box off, though, so this hive does not seem to have the population that the other two do. No comb in the sugar box.   It does seem to be a healthy hive from the number of bees at the entrance though.  I suspect that the mild winter had a lot to do with the unusually high sugar consumption as the bees were likely more active this winter than usual.
I need to get down into these hives when I have a chance and weather permits to get a better idea of how the queens and hives are doing, and to see if they need a honey super added.  I also might want to switch boxes to move the cluster down in each box.  I did get my first sting of the season.  I thought I could remove the straw bales from behind the hives without attracting the attention of any guard bees, but one went after me as I was taking the last bale away and followed me 30 feet or so and became entangled in my hair, stinging me on the top of my head.  I should have been wearing my bee jacket and veil.

Apricots in bloom

The blossoms on my apricot trees burst into bloom yesterday and today -- very early.

The were all open by today.

It was a cloudy day but that didn't keep my bees in their hives.  Here one is gathering nectar.

Early signs of Spring

We have had a mild winter and are having an early Spring this year  Here are some crocuses blooming along our driveway.  I need to plant more of these.  They are a welcome first sign of Spring.

Purple crocuses are blooming next to our dog kennel -- well, it's a cat kennel now.

The leaf buds on the lilacs along the east garden fence are swelling and green.

These buds on my apricot trees seem to be about to burst open.  These are always my first fruit trees to bloom.

The buds on my plum trees are also showing a lot of green and swelling.

The bees again were active on this warm early Spring day.  Here bees are on the bottom entrance of the North hive.

Bees are also active at the top entrance of my North hive.

Bees are also flying at the bottom entrance of the middle hive.

And here are the bees on the bottom entrance of the South hive, showing that all three hives seem to remain active and healthy.  I hope to get into the tops of these hives on the next warm day in mid-March to see how their emergency sugar stores are holding out.

Purple finches

Purple finches have been a frequent visitor to my bird feeders this winter.  They have been present every winter, but there seem to be more this winter.  The second and fourth birds in this photo are goldfinches in winter plumage and the other three are purple finches, the male being in the middle.

Here is a close-up of a male purple finch.

And this is the female.

Bees flying in February

We have had several warm days when the bees could fly -- they come out if the temperatures get into the high 40s or low 50s F.  The were flying on February 11 while the last snowfall was still melting.

Here there are a few bees in the air in front of the North hive.

Another shot of the bottom entrance of the North hive, later in the day when it was warmer.  Lots of bees out.  The bees in this hive still tend to go in and out of the hive at the far Southern end of the bottom even though it is open all the way across.  They have been doing this since this hive was established from a swarm caught in the apiary three years ago.

This hive also has a top entrance in the Winter in the sugar box.  Here several bees are using and hovering around that entrance.

The middle hive also shows some activity early in the day.

Later in the day, the middle hive bottom entrance is quite busy.

The top entrance is also busy in the middle hive.

The South hive is busy too early in the day with snow still on the ground.

Later in the day, the South hive is also quite busy with hots of bees orienting in front of the hive.  This hive also has a top entrance but I haven't seen any bees using it this Winter.

The three hives viewed from the south, with my straw bale windbreak behind (to the West).  This is later in the day -- the snow is gone.

A return to beekeeping

 

It has been almost a year since I added a post to this blog.  A terrible family tragedy in early May left me many of my usual avocations for much of last year.  My bees were completely neglected from April to September.  I did manage to give them a treatment for mites late in October and get the hives winterized, with roofing felt wrapping, straw bales on the west and north sides and 16 pounds of sugar and quilt boxes in each hive.

The temperature got up in to the mid-50s today and all the hives were active.  Overall its been a fairly mild winter though we have had some bitter cold and some ice.

Here are some bees hovering around the top entrance of the north hive.

The bottom entrance was even more busy with bees in the air and clustered around the entrance.  I did forget to mention that I also put mouse guards on the front of each hive as can be seen here.  I also did not take any honey off of these hives last year and just left it on for the winter, so all of the hives should have lots of stores.

Here are bees around the top entrance of the middle hive.  This hive seemed to be the strongest through most of last summer and fall from my occasional observations of the outside.  This hive frequently had large numbers of bees on the outside of the hive.  However, I noticed what appeared to be a sudden drop in the number of bees on the outside of the hive late in October and fear that they may have swarmed very late in the season -- too late to properly re-queen due to the shortage of drones for mating at that time of year.  They do seem to be strong, so perhaps I was wrong.  Time will tell.

The bottom entrance of the middle hive was very busy with bees -- the most busy of the three hives.

Here is the bottom entrance of the south hive with lots of bees in the air and on the entrance.  I did not take a picture of the top entrance because there was no activity there.  As I recall, they never did use the top entrance of this hive last winter either.

I did notice several bees hovering over a pile of rotting straw that was about 30 feet behind the hives, with several bees crawling around on it.  I don't know what the attraction was, but they seemed to find something interesting there.

I did manage to put in a garden last year, with a large tomato bed, successful melon, pumpkin and watermelon patches and, for the first time, a full flower garden.   Here it lies dormant waiting for the coming Spring.

This is my tomato patch from last summer.  I don't usually clear the garden until March or April so the cages are still up.

The grapes were something that was completely ignored last year, with no pruning and little care.  The critters got all of the grapes as in years past.  I hope this year to work more on finding ways to preserve my crops from the animals.