From: Julia Graham <jlg7001@humboldt.edu>
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 09:06:54 -0800
To: biological beekeeping <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: location and weather of bee yard.

Sorry I didn't mention where my bees are. :-) I'm in far Northern
California, on the coast, where the winters aren't that cold, but are VERY
very wet. In fact, when I last peered into the hive, the top cover had a
number of slugs on it! Along with lots of moisture and slug slime
(ewwww). I scraped 'em off, but would like to get the hive in the sun
where it has a chance to dry out a bit (on the few days when it's
sunny). Our winters are very very wet, even when it's not raining. And we
do get a fair amount of rain all throughout the winter, with a sunny day
here and there. I've noticed less activity in my hive when it IS sunny
than others that are in the sunshine, because the hive bodies don't warm up
and they're in a pocket down in the pasture that tends to stay cooler. I
guess I just want to give the bees every opportunity to have cleansing
flights when it's not raining.

In addition, and I know this isn't necessary information, but what the heck...
Our well is also down in the pasture, as well as our horse. We need to
fence off the well house so that the horse doesn't use the area near it
for his latrine, and I figured two birds with one stone. Put the bee yard
nearer to the well house, so we can electrify the whole thing (we have
bears up here, so I have electric fencing around the bee hives) instead of
piece meal.

Julia
in Elk River, CA, USA