Just curious as when is really the best time to remove winter wraps, early Spring, mid Spring when temp. settles, the time of your first real inspection, etc.?
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Just curious as when is really the best time to remove winter wraps, early Spring, mid Spring when temp. settles, the time of your first real inspection, etc.?
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Since I've never bothered to wrap, I must not think it matters.
I think anytime it's not going to get really cold anymore is fine. Certainly before it gets really hot. A black wrap on a sunny day in the 80's could get very hot inside the hive.
I've seen the bees fly on days that were too cold because the sun was out and the hive got warm. They fly and and crash into the snow because of the cold. I figure it would happen even more with a wrapped hive. Maybe I'm wrong.
The seemed to do ok in an observation hive and it was always warm inside the hive.
The winter wraps are to protect the hives from the extreem cold of winter, and allow the bee cluster time to orginize when cold weather suddenly drops down throughout the early spring. I usually don't take my wraps off until about two week or so before splitting. I split around the end of April so I like to have the wrap off about the second week of April, when I feed pollen patties and treat with Apistan. Splitting and equilizing the beeyard is a big job, so I like to have the wrap off before hand.
Ian
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