Hi Temps on Mon & Tue, time to check the bees

[Allen]

Can't believe how nice it's supposed to get. Highs around 60 both days.
Gonna pop the tops and check how things are going.
I miss seeing their daily comings and goings like in warm weather.

[Michael B]

I am oxalic vaporizing tomorrow.

Any reason why you are taking a peek? Bees get pretty nasty this time of year. I took 6 stings to the hand a couple weeks ago while removing a hive top feeder.

[Allen]

It's all part of the learning experience for me as to what things look like during different seasons.
I won't be digging into the supers like a warm weather inspection and am expecting them to be defensive.
Were you wearing gloves?

[Michael B]

No gloves. I usually dont.

A good thing to do is to lift the back of the hive and estimate weight. Tomorrow I will pry the inner cover to break the propolis seal. Another trick to improve winter ventilation. The propolis is very hard this time of year and wont seal back up.

[Allen]

[DamSutt1986]

I was watching the weather and saw that Tuesday does look pretty great around these parts. I will have to check all my hives too. I'll do my final dry sugar feeding if they need it, and wrap them in tarpaper on Tues.

[TheBuzz]

seeing if they need food as its a temporary warm spell.

[GLOCK]

Going to be around 60 tomorro also in these parts i might give the bee yards a visit but i'll just do a walk by{maybe some pics} all my hives where doing the winter hum thing nicely just a couple days ago and there all heavy so no need to bug them can't wait till spring.

[MelanieWoosley]

That's a cute bee yard glock! Cheers to a good winter and a better spring!

[Jim 134]

Going to be around 60 tomorro also in these parts i might give the bee yards a visit but i'll just do a walk by{maybe some pics} all my hives where doing the winter hum thing nicely just a couple days ago and there all heavy so no need to bug them can't wait till spring.

I like your bee yard and I all so see you got BEARS.



BEE HAPPY Jim 134

[applebwoi]

I got everything ready for winter in late October and added some sugar just for insurance, althought I didn't think they'd need it since all had adequate stores and the hives were heavy. A guy who owns the land where I have one apiary wanted to go see what was happening with the bees so I agreed and we went out. Good thing! Someone/something had pushed over one of the hives so I set it back up but noticed that the sugar I'd added was gone and not on the ground where the hive fell. I checked the others and everyone except a couple were now light and no sugar left. Our temps have been exceptionally warm and I guess they are using much more of their stores than normal. I'll have to watch closely now all winter. Today I added sugar to all hives again but temps still in the upper 60s and possibly even 70's this week. Crazy weather and way unseasonably warm for this time of year. Problem is around here it could be -20 F next week and then back into the 50's the following week. Winters in the Texas panhandle are tough to predict and tougher to plan for. Good luck to all in overwintering their hives.

[Allen]

It was nice to be back in the saddle again for at least a short time.

All 4 hives and 1 nuc were flying and they weren't too cranky either.