I stopped by my Dads house to pick him up for a UofL basketball game yesterday and I went around to look at some hives I have in his yard. Out of the 8 hives there was only activity in around three of them. Not looking good. I have 12 or so hives at my house and they were all moving yesterday so I am hopeful for them but I have 2 other out yards with 10 in one and 5 in the other and I havnt been able to check them yet. Cold snap coming in tonight so it will probably be another week before I check them out.I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed and do some praying.
Entrance activity depends on temperature. Put an ear to the wall of the colony near the top and knock lightly with a knuckle. You'll hear the cluster roar a bit and settle down.
In our area, it wouldn't surprise me to see a lack of activity around a few hives. Even with neighboring hives flying, it is typical for some hives to stay clustered. Most of my hives do not respond to rapping on the hive.
Sunshine on the entrance this time of year really seems to make a difference. In my yard, it goes so far as two hives share the same stand, one turned 180 degrees, and the one that gets the sun on the entrance is flying sooner and more than the other this winter, as are other hives that get more sun. Also, I seem to get the most cleansing flights on the first decent day after a period of bad weather, much less with similar weather on the next day. I figure everybody "took care of business" yesterday, why waste the energy today?
Let us know, I bet you've got more alive than you think.
It was warmer yesterday than today here. However, when I checked mine yesterday afternoon there was no activity. Today they were all active. Beats me what the difference was.
I'm by you, and it was freaking cold last night. I went to Kroger late last night and the blast hit me so hard. I asked my self how can bees survive nights like tonight.
Yeah,I went out yesterday and smoothed out some dirt with my Bobcat. I've been waiting a month for it to dry out enough to smooth it and there was finally enough wind and freezing temps to remove some of the moisture. I was out there about 2 hours and I was starting to feel it when I came in. Today was even worse so I opted out on working outside.Its supposed to rain/snow on Thursday so I would like to spread some gravel before then or it might take 6 more weeks to get dry again.
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