The Storm Passes…the Sun Arrives

Dead Honey Bees on the Landing Board
Casualties from a Cold, Winter's Night

Late last night, perhaps around 11:30 PM, I took the dogs out to do their nightly nature calls and noticed that snow was still coming down, ever so lightly. The temperatures had dropped into the 20’s and were scheduled to get lower here in central Virginia. My thoughts to the bees were only of passing curiosity and a lot of amazement. How they can keep the cluster warm in times like these is nothing short of amazing.

This morning, the good ole Sun finally poked through and we quickly went to a full sun day. The temperatures have risen to about 35 degrees and are expected to go a bit higher. Regardless, they will not get high enough for a bee to come out. Still, this morning I went to look at the hives and found several dead honey bees out on the landing boards on both hives.

A dead bee in the snow
A dead bee, about a yard from the hive

I have to assume that this death is natural. I wonder if they actually dragged themselves out to die or not. It is said that part of a honey bee’s defense system against disease is its altruistic behavior of flying off to die away from the hive when it feels poorly. Perhaps these bees were sick. Or, maybe they were simply some of the older bees that could not take the weather of the past couple of days. Still, if they did not drag themselves out, I am wondering about those brave girls that took them out in this cold weather. I am guessing that they must have dragged themselves out. There were a couple, beneath each hive, in the snow around the hives. One was a few feet away, so flight took her to her destination. Who knows if it was her own flight (most likely) or that of a sister carrying her to her final resting place.

Hopefully, all is well. It will be at least a week before I can check them again, which is probably for the best. I would like to put some more feed on the weaker hive. We’ll see if that ever comes to pass.

Winter Bee Equipment Order Placed!

Snow on my Bee Hive
Eight inches of snow in December

I am doing a lot of reading these days, some of it in books and periodicals, but the majority of it online, reading a couple of the really great forums out there. While on Beemaster.com, I found a  post stating that Dadant was shipping bee equipment for free in December! Since I am a Dadant man, I gave them a call today to confirm.

The kind lady confirmed this great news and I have ordered a set of deeps, shallows, some swarm lure (for fun) and a few honey-harvesting related supplies (who knows! I might have honey this year!)

At any rate, this was a great find and something I will remember to check next year. I had planned to make a special trip while down at South Boston with the Inlaws over Christmas, so this was a great time saver.

One note about the foundation – they do not like to ship that this time of year. The temperatures and treatment (in the mail) can damage the foundation pretty badly. They only ship ‘at the buyer’s risk’ and advised me against it. I was cool with that, as I can always make another trip later to get that (or maybe have one of the beekeepers in the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Association pick it up during one of their trips.)

At any rate, this was a great Christmas present.

A Warm Day Arrives in Central Virginia!

Beekeeping in the Winter is clearly going to be just like the Summer – I look at the bees and wonder what the heck they are doing, if they are struggling and, finally, is the mere act of me ‘messing’ with them setting them back further!?! All of these questions ran through my mind over the Summer and it’s deja vu all over again.

Regardless, Richmond, Va had a day of fairly good weather. They were calling for the mid-50’s, but the only time that I could check the gals was over my lunch break at 1 pm, when it was 58 degrees (that’s in Richmond, as my thermometer says 55 degrees.) Regardless, Tom Fifer always said that ‘if the bees are flying, you can check on them’ and my bees were definitely flying today.

Hive 2

Hive 2 Workers Collecting Pollen

The weak hive was alive with activity. As always, I wondered if I was looking at some of my bees coming out for a breather (lots of wet and cold weather these past few weeks) or if I was looking at a battle to the death between my bees and some neighboring hives (feral or maybe my own!) I could see no fighting and, of greatest interest, I could see a TON of the workers coming in with pollen packed to the gills! I  am terrible with colors, but it looked like a pale yellow to me. Maybe some grass pollen? Even my camellias have stopped blooming, so I have no idea what could be blooming out there now. It must be left over grass pollen. There were a few (maybe 3) bees dead or dying beneath the hive, but I am guessing these are the old gals that are going to the great big bee hive in the sky. At one point there were 60+ bees either flying about in front of the hive or climbing around the small entrance hole. By the time I opened them up, it was much less (more like 15 bees, with most on the landing board.)

One of my main tasks today was to remove the top feeder and then, on the next warm day, put down some fondant. This is a new substance to me that I recently read about in one of my bee magazines. Bees apparently have a hard time dealing with syrup in the Winter months. I probably should have executed my plan, but (as will be noted when I upload my pics) the bees were all over the syrup. A ton of them were taking it in. I simply decided to let it alone. There was not much syrup left and I might check with Tom Fifer on his thoughts about feeding syrup through the Winter before I remove this feeder.

Honey Bees gorging in the top feeder in Winter.

Looking into the hive, it was not terrible news, but these gals do not have enough food to make it through the Winter. I probably have 5 frames full of honey in the top Deep super. The other frames are really mostly empty (or not even fully drawn out.) When I took a few frames out, I could see that the cluster was up towards the front of the hive (which would be the South side) in the center. There were a bunch of them and it made me wonder if part of the cluster was in the top super. I recently was advised not to break the cluster, so I stopped there. Of course, this made me wonder why the heck I opened it at all (to remove only two frames.) I need to check with some of the experienced beekeepers to see what they look for in Central Virginia (which may have different strategies then the ones I have heard from others.)

Hive 1

Hive 1 had much less bees about the front and I could not find a one with pollen loaded. I stayed for awhile (the sheer number of pollen bearers coming in at Hive 2 made me want to believe Hive 1 was at least doing a bit of this gathering.) But, I could not find one bee going into the hive with any pollen. Not really sure what this means.

Upon opening Hive 1 (which has no feeder), I found bees all the way to the top. Most of their frames are full, so I am guessing they are moving some honey around and otherwise moving up into the top super. This is the one that I will have to watch for swarming (or maybe doing a break to get another hive.) I am reluctant to do anything that would set them back, as I expect to get a big load of honey (or at least my first jar of honey) from this hive. I decided not to mess with any of the frames on this hive.

Next month, I will go a bit deeper and get some pollen patties on top of the brood next to give them a bit of food for the coming Spring.

More Thoughts on Winter

We are now running about 6 weeks of wet. I have not been keeping an accurate count, but I am fairly certain that we have not had longer then a 4 or 5 day stretch without rain. The problem is two-fold, as the weather has turned cold (so less evaporation) and the ‘spots’ of rain have sometimes been down pours! I have actually filled up my 8 inch rain gauge twice (in 6 weeks – it’s pretty much a record in central virginia and certainly in Varina, Virginia.) Weather like this is not good for the bees or the beekeepers!

At any rate, the temperatures today have hovered in the low 40’s and are heading to the low 20’s tonight. This means that the only thing I do with the bees is kwalk by the hive and think about them. I actually placed my hand on them today, just to see if I could feel any warmth. But, this drove me to do some more reading about the bees and winter in my Zone 7 area, so I have documented these notes below, for future reference.

Ventilation

This whole ventilation concept has been one of those things that I typically do not learn unless I experience it. I apply most bee concepts to myself, so the thought of creating a natural vent (opening a window in the basement and one on the second floor of my house) was repugnant to me. How in the world could that be helpful!? I would be really mad about it, if I were a bee.

The thought, or so I have been told, is that the bees maintain a temperature that is a bit above 90 degrees in the cluster (the area where the bees all huddle in a ball and rub their hands together because it is so cold!) This heat, when present in a cold environment, causes a steam of a sort to waft up the hive and condense on the cover. Soon, as it cools on the bottom of the cover, it forms droplets that eventually fall back down (at a much colder temperature then when they wet up) into the center of the cluster (assuming the cluster is in the center of the hive.) This is fatal for the bees.

So, this is one reason why they strongly recommend against painting the inside of your deep/brood chamber. It is better to leave it unpainted, so that it can absorb some of that moisture (as open wood is likely to do.) But, many folks recommend creating a ‘draft’ (a small hole at the top of the hive to pull air up through the hive and push the wet air out) to help the bees out with this.

Today, my misgivings have been mostly laid to rest, as I have read where a very successful beekeeper from New York (an area much colder then my Varina bee yard) creates a ventilation by pushing his top Deep back about an 1/8 of an inch so that a small gap is created between it and the bottom Deep. This has actually worked for him, although I have to maintain that his bees get mad about it! Still, it must be a good plan.

To close out my discussion of this subject, I found where a good number of beekeepers in my area will take a Popsicle stick, cut it into 4 pieces and place one at each corner of the top of the bottom deep. This creates a narrow (about 1/16 inch) ventilation area. This will be my plan going forward.

Wind Break

My stronger hive has no real wind break, which has been bothering me. One fellow recommended putting up two fence poles (T poles) and spreading burlap between the two of them. I might try this before January.