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I had been waiting for a good day to go in and clean out my beetle traps, and do a general hive inspection and see if I need to reduce the hives down for winter. Today was that day (80 degrees) and I couldn't get home in time. I'm pretty sure we will have some more 70 degree days before winter. Will I be ok to go into the hives with temps in the mid 60's ?
Clean out your traps and get an opinion of their stores to decide to feed or not and close them up. You can't help them now queenwise and can only hurt by chilling what brood there is.
Spend 4-5 minutes and get out.
Good Luck, Mike
I have a dozen or so that I need to get down to the bottom board on before it gets real cold. We're expecting a frost this week, but I never got mouse guards on these and I have to check for those furry devils before I lock them in for winter. I just need a warm weekend day to get it done, quick, or it's going to be a crap shoot come spring. I hate mice (they ate the wiring harness out of my truck last winter).
I'd just tip the boxes back on the bottom board and put the guards on and not break the seal between boxes unless you are gonna wrap them.
Good Luck, Mike
Thanks Mike, Looks like you and I are pretty much in the same area weatherwise. Should I go ahead and do my work ? or wait for a little warmer temps? This is my first year and it has been pretty good so far. I don't want to goof things up for the bees going in to winter.
sam,it depends on how long it will take you to clean your traps-I dont use 'em and dont know. if you can get in and out in 5 mins you are good to go if not I would wait. the brood we have now are whats gonna carry us till spring, so no more than 5 mins.
I use 60 degree as the minimum temp to go into hives. But yesterday I had a state inspector here and we opened all my hives with temps in the upper 50s. As long as the bees are flying I don't think you'll do any harm.
I pop tops and look in (but don't manipulate) to check where the bees are and see what I can for stores in the winter time when it is sunny and the temp is above freezing.
Me, too. I was going to do my final winter prep today, and we had a cold snap! It was 31 this morning, with frost on everything (goodbye, garden) and dead bees on the landing board. Fortunately, I can hear a constant buzzing from within the hive, and now that the sun has hit the hive there are a few buzzing around.
According to NOAA, it won't get warm enough for me to open the hive until Monday. Looks like you're supposed to get up to 66 on Tuesday, if I'm not mistaken.
It turned out to be a really nice day today. The weather folks missed their prediction. I was able to get my work done as needed. I was expecting a lot more than I got. The way the bees were hauling in pollen over the past three weeks I was sure they would have more stores in place than what was there. I suppose they were backfilling brood cells.
Sam I might be wrong, but I dont think you will need beetle traps in your hives during the winter.
They were already there, I needed to clean them out, or at least I thought so. Lots of beetles,hardly any in the traps.Quote:
Originally Posted by sfisher