Winter Pics

[Durandal]

Some Mountaincamp method...sucking up moisture and when its too cold to go out but warm enough to move around inside they are hitting the stuff quite nicely.

Nine days apart between the first three images. Sorry they are not at exactly the same angle to show better comparisons.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_0942.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_0941.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_0950.jpg

Close up from last week of current consumption.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_0952.jpg

[Durandal]

Close up of bee on pile of sugar...

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_0959.jpg

[Durandal]

I am working on a new saw mill building that is going to have a small woodshop attached to it. I am in the process of cleaning out and rebuild this shop from woodshop to honey house.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Honey%20House%20Project/IMG_0962.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Honey%20House%20Project/IMG_0963.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Honey%20House%20Project/IMG_0966.jpg

[Durandal]

Starting to add plastic frames to new and reclaimed deeps (converting from all mediums to double deep and mediums.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Honey%20House%20Project/IMG_0965.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Honey%20House%20Project/IMG_0968.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_0833.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_0838.jpg

[Durandal]

More Winter Pics ...late December
http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_0921.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_0930.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_0931.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_0933.jpg

[winevines]

Beautiful!

[HAB]

Fantastic Pics!!
Wish we could get some snow. Haven't seen any since March 93 when we got two feet. If it keeps getting warmer we won't have any winter at all. My propane tank read 21% in September and 19% today. Haven't bought any in three years now. Used to use 100 gals a year! (And no I haven't moved.):lookout:

[Durandal]

Converting Old Deeps to New Nucs.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1076.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1080.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1082.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1090.jpg

[Durandal]

Painted and complete with the rest of the gear waiting on Spring.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1101.jpg

[Durandal]

Checking activity without opening up. This is from this afternoon. I scraped the sheets last Thursday. This is the amount of debris fall for three days in zero and sub-zero temps. So I know these are active. One has nothing which makes me think its done. The rest look good too, but the photos came out poorly.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1122.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1130.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1135.jpg

[wadehump]

durandal how did your nucs turn out that came from ohio homestead in lancaster , i bought 1 med nuc from him in june and going into winter they were built up strong ,on the last warm day we had a couple of weeks ago they were flying as well as my other 5 hives .

[Durandal]

durandal how did your nucs turn out that came from ohio homestead in lancaster , i bought 1 med nuc from him in june and going into winter they were built up strong ,on the last warm day we had a couple of weeks ago they were flying as well as my other 5 hives .

They did well. I'd buy from him again, but I have not heard back from him.

I accidentally killed one of the queens in transit when I picked up 4 nucs from him and he replaced her.

Of my six three are his. The fourth was my fault. Missed the queen, thought they were queenless, did a combine and wow.

All in all I was very happy with his bees and very unhappy with my actions. :D

I pulled about 109# of honey off three of them. Which is not bad considering I was comb building and we had a drought from July on.

In Addition: The three colonies remaining colonies seem to be overwintering quite well....so far.

[wadehump]

i too will would buy from him again ,i got mine in late june i did not get any honey from them but i did have 1 of my splits go queenless and used a frame of brood from them to raise a queen from and they built up real fast

[Durandal]

More winter pics...today we got hammered (relatively speaking) with lots of snow (which does not bother me) and ice (which, when it snaps trees and power lines does)...its still dropping ice as I type this.

No snow pics, I'll have those tomorrow. Been wanting to get some good ones for holiday cards next Christmas. Spent most the day making covers for nucs.

Last Friday it was up in the high 40s low 50s so I took a peak to see how they were doing. Lots of activity up front on all hives. All the colonies appear to be healthy, I think. I thought I had lost one only find out it was simply waiting to explode during some warm temps.

Anyways...some pics before I hit the hay.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_1212.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_1230.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Mountaincamp%20Wintering%20Method/IMG_1231.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/IMG_1232.jpg

[Durandal]

We got the northern edge of the storm the nailed Kentucky and Arkansas. Tomorrow its heading into the high 30s lower 40s.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1354.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1352.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1362.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1366.jpg

[Durandal]

Chipped off the ice on the front entrances so they can make use of both top and lower entrances when things warm up.

I then pulled the boards to check for activity (on the ones I could). These were cleaned the previous Friday (5 days of activity).

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1368.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1370.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1373.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1372.jpg
Note mites...

[GRIMBEE]

I counted 4 mites in the bottom picture.:eek:

[bleta12]

I counted 4 mites in the bottom picture.:eek:

There are 4 Grimbee.

[Durandal]

I am not really worried about the mites.

All I did this last year was powder sugar treatments (three times). I timed this right at the end of October as the brood space shrank quickly. Those four mites were 4 of 5 but I could not get the fifth in the frame. That's five mites dropping, with heavy activity (the first 14 hours) followed by reclustering, which depending on the colony can alter the debris drop a bit.

So far a 0.71 mite per day count does not have me worried. I can see the bees and they appear to be clustering, breaking cluster, and reclustering well, not a whole lot of dysentery, nice numbers, and we are about two weeks from the first early budding of Silver Maples and on the back side of the cold weather.

And I have more pics from today...bees and snow when its in the 40s is a great opportunity for some good shots.

A video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BckEqtJcL0

My favorite of the batch...
http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1416.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1418.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1419.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1434.jpg

[Durandal]

On the Mountaincamp Method...

The one colony I have been detailing the most, who I thought had stopped consuming the dry sugar was in fact directly in the center of the mass and have broken through.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1425.jpg

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r381/Carriage_House_Farm/Bee%20Related/Bees%20WInter/IMG_1426.jpg