Winter loosens its grip

A bluebird sits on the garden fence.  Today the temperatures got well into the 50s and it finally felt like Spring.  Daylight savings time arrived today too.  There was a small flock of robins looking for food in the front yard this morning and I saw a turkey vulture floating around int he sky.  No signs of any spring flowers poking out of the ground, but winter seems to be losing its grip.

I continue to have bees flying in front of both hives.  There weren't so many today despite the warm temperatures probably because there was quite a bit of wind too.  This is my stronger hive.  If you look close, you can see a few bees hovering on front.

I popped the top to see how the sugar block was holding out.  The bees have eaten most of the sugar in the stronger hive and there were a lot of bees on top.  I did buy some protein patties to put on the hives but I think I will wait a week or two.  The protein encourages the queen to lay more brood and that can cause problems if the weather turns cold again, as it surely will in March.

The weaker hive also had a few bees flying in front.

When I popped the top on this hive it looked very different, though the number of bees flying in front always seems to be about the same as the other hive.  These bees have not eaten through the sugar block and there were what appeared to be dead bees on top, though not a lot of them.  Also note the signs of  bee poop on the sugar -- a sign that the bees are suffering from Nosema or some other form of dysentery.  I have antibiotic to treat them with but that has to be done in sugar water and it is still too cold for them to take that.  I hope that they survive until I can treat them.  This hive is clearly going to remain weaker than the other.

More cold and snow

Another snow storm and bitter cold.  It was only about 5 degrees when I went out to take this picture at 3:30 pm, and temperatures are predicted to go below zero tonight again.  We only have 2 or 3 inches of new snow, which is much better than the 8 to 10 inches that was originally predicted.  The average temperature for this time of year is in the 40s and we have daylight savings time starting next weekend.  We did have a few days that approached 50 for highs in the week after my last post and I was glad to see a number of bee flying in front of both of my hives.  So, both hives were alive before cold set it in again.  No relief in sight until the end of this week and then only into the 30s.

I did get my garden seeds ordered this past week, so I haven't completely given up on Spring.  I suppose that Spring will be late this year but perhaps will hit us all at once and stay.  I hope so.

And MORE snow

A prediction of "less than an inch" of snow for Friday turned into heavy snow that send me home from work almost as soon as I got there, for fear that I would not be able to get back in.  I think we ended up with five or six inches of new soft fluffy snow on top of what we had.  These tracks show how I was able (barely) to get out of our lane on Friday but by Saturday morning drifting discouraged me from trying again.

This seems to be my classic snow picture now -- snow on the tractor.  The accumulation keeps building.

My grape vines and garden under a blanket of snow.  At least the garden will have a good start of moisture when all of this melts.  The prediction is for warmer temperatures next week to start the melting process, but also some freezing rain and snow on Monday.  At this time last year I was taking pictures of daffodils four inches out of the ground with big buds and was watching snow geese flying overhead.

I took this early on Saturday morning, so there is still frost on the remains of last year's grapes.

Here are the tracks of Friday's drive out now drifted on Saturday morning, though this wasn't the worst of it.  We had it plowed out by late afternoon on Saturday.

The sun shines through frosted trees.

I took a look at my bee hives though it was only about 30 degrees so too cold to open them up and look inside.  Here there are dead bees on the landing board of the weaker "north" hive, which in a way is encouraging as it indicates there are live bees carrying them out and leaving them there.  So, dead bees are actually signs of life.

Here is a dead bee (probably) on top of the snow a foot in front of that same hive.  Since we had another inch or so of fluffy stuff on Saturday (I took this today -- Sunday) this tells me that this bee and the other two dead bees I saw were flying in the last 24 hours.  Again, this is encouraging sign of life in the hive.

The stronger "south" hive had no dead bees in front or on the landing board, but I saw three live bees either walking around on the snow in front or climbing out of the top entrance.  This one was walking around in one of my footprints and seemed to be cleaning itself, then took off.  We have been having such a prolonged stretch of bitter cold weather that I was fearful that there would be no bees surviving, but these signs suggest that both hives still have survivors.

My bird feeders have been very busy with all of this snow cover, but are being actively raided by squirrels --here there are four fox squirrels on the two feeders enjoying my sunflower seeds.

Another eight inches of snow

We received another eight inches of snow on top of the ice and snow that we had received over the weekend, and this snow was immediately followed by high winds that brought a lot of drifting, as well as temperatures dipping below zero.  The schools were closed for three days, and I was stuck at home all of the work day before we could get our road cleared just before 5 p.m.

Here the tractor is covered with snow that is drifted around its base.  I tried several times to get the tractor started but it would run only a few minutes and then die.  I presume there is ice blocking either the fuel line or the air intake.  Each time I returned to the tractor to try again, my footprints from the last trip would be obliterated by drifting snow.

Here the straw bales that serve as a wind break for my bee hives are covered with snow with snow drifted around them.

The hives themselves were covered with snow and the bottom entrances were completely blocked by the two past storms.  I cleared off the bottoms to open the entrances but it was too cold to expect any activity.

Ice and snow

As this unusually harsh winter continues, we received a snow fall of about 3 inches followed by a lot of ice.  Here ice is gleaming on the trees in the forest next to the house.

A small weeping cherry tree in our front yard is encased in ice, with the forest in the background.

Trees along our lane covered in ice.

The tractor covered in ice and icicles.

My grapevines covered in ice.

Apple trees covered in ice.  I really should have put away that picker.

Pear and peach trees covered in ice.

My beehives covered with ice and snow -- snow covered with a crust of ice covers the bottom entrances.

Sun shining through the icy trees on the following day, Groundhog Day.  Though the sun was shining to show the groundhogs shadow he was no doubt unable to escape his ice encrusted home to take a look.  I don't know what that predicts for the weather, but it can't be good.

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of birds around the bird feeders that have been so busy with all of this snow cover.  Here a cardinal is perched on a small dogwood tree next to the feeders.

A goldfinch in winter plumage perched on a feeder.

A purple finch finding seeds among the seeds knocked from the feeders above.

Winter rolls on

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.

A New Year

Sunday morning broke with falling and blowing snow and temperatures dropping rapidly.  The weather service describes this as the coldest weather mass in many years.  The snow had started Saturday night and continued through most of the daylight hours of Sunday.  This picture was taken out of our front door looking toward the garden.

I ventured out in the snow to take some pictures,  It seemed to be seven or eight inches deep, though it is hard to tell when it is blowing around so much.  This is looking down our lane past the garden, with snow blowing up the lane.  The area around our house, which is surrounded on three sides by forest, is somewhat protected, so the blowing snow was much greater beyond the garden.

Looking toward the garden with a drift off the edge of the lane.

Looking up the lane at the blowing snow from the same location.

Birds at the bird feeder with snow blowing off of the roof of the back porch.  The feeders have been very busy during all of this time.  Temperatures were about 15 below zero on Monday morning, and didn't get quite up to zero through the day.  The dip down well below zero again tonight, but are supposed to "warm" up in the teens tomorrow.

I took this picture this evening after we had someone plow the lane.  I couldn't do it with my tractor, which has no cab, with the  wind chills so dangerously low.  I tried to drive out of the lane with our four wheel drive pickup but got stuck in a drift and barely made it back.  Our flat field to the right was transformed into storm-tossed waves of snow, with billowing drifts two or three feet high.  Unfortunately, these drifts got into the lane in spots.