Good to hear your hives are doing well. 
I peeked at mine yesterday and they are still alive, and out flying today.
I peeked at mine yesterday and they are still alive, and out flying today.
Got into the hives today..
Well my 2 first year hives have so far made it through the winter. I gave the first hive 5lbs of sugar....and the second hive 10lbs. The second hive has a smaller number of bees so I wasn't sure what their stores are like. But both hives look really good. They both also have about 2.5lbs of fondant from the fall...that is now down on the topbars compared to when I was feeding them on the inner cover.
Hope all is well with everyone elses hives. I'm adding 5-6 more hives this spring...and maybe more depending on how many swarms I catch. Have multiple other properties I can setup hives on but just focussing on here at the homestead for this year. Going to get into queen rearing next year as well.
:thumbsup:
Hope all is well with everyone elses hives. I'm adding 5-6 more hives this spring...and maybe more depending on how many swarms I catch. Have multiple other properties I can setup hives on but just focussing on here at the homestead for this year. Going to get into queen rearing next year as well.
:thumbsup:
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I also got into half of my hives today and I am glad I did. I had a very strong hive going into winter and it was already in the top super. I took a full super from another hive and stuck it on top. For the other one, I immediately put on sugar that I stole from another hive. I was robbing Peter to pay Paul.
So far, I have peaked into 20 of my hives and there is activity in all of them. However some of them are not so strong.
I had put sugar on most of these hives using the Moutaincamp method. The newspaper looked wet on all but one, and the sugar had hardened on all of them.
Since it had hit 50 degrees, several hives had workers marching in and out of the entrance. I had a few bees flying.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that they all make it, but we still have 8 more weeks of winter.
So far, I have peaked into 20 of my hives and there is activity in all of them. However some of them are not so strong.
I had put sugar on most of these hives using the Moutaincamp method. The newspaper looked wet on all but one, and the sugar had hardened on all of them.
Since it had hit 50 degrees, several hives had workers marching in and out of the entrance. I had a few bees flying.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that they all make it, but we still have 8 more weeks of winter.
I worked my hives today....It got to 60 degrees this afternoon. My 3 hives were still alive. One hive that is one deep and one shallow super is a bit weak and doesn't have enough bees to fill all the frames in the deep, but some bees were in the shallow super and they had over 30 pounds of honey.
I can't wait for my honey flow to start...I'll be making splits and expand to 5 or 6 hives this summer
I can't wait for my honey flow to start...I'll be making splits and expand to 5 or 6 hives this summer
Re: Condensation?
Hello fellow beekeeper's, I checked my hive today, after some bitterly cold weather, as most of the nation has experienced. The bees looked great and I have been feeding them with the mountain camp method. But I do have one question. I did notice a little condensation on the under side of the inner cover, and the newspaper was damp, and had a little bit of mold on it, is this normal? and if is not what can I do to fix this. I have read it might need more ventilation, I use a 3/4 inch block on the inside of the outer cover but I was wondering if I need to some how vent the hive better to control the condensation. I use an entrance reducer and the opening is about 2". any info would be greatly appreciated.
Hello fellow beekeeper's, I checked my hive today, after some bitterly cold weather, as most of the nation has experienced. The bees looked great and I have been feeding them with the mountain camp method. But I do have one question. I did notice a little condensation on the under side of the inner cover, and the newspaper was damp, and had a little bit of mold on it, is this normal? and if is not what can I do to fix this. I have read it might need more ventilation, I use a 3/4 inch block on the inside of the outer cover but I was wondering if I need to some how vent the hive better to control the condensation. I use an entrance reducer and the opening is about 2". any info would be greatly appreciated.
Yeah took my lunch break and checked as well. Could tell right off that 1 of my 2 was not in good shape. It's almost at a loss, only 50 or so bees left. They died of starvation I guess but the funny thing is a lot of them that died on the outside of the cluster were all head first in cells but about an inch over were capped honey cells. They just couldn't move over I guess.
If your hive(s) doing great, I wouldn't mess with it - maybe open up the bottom entrance (if you're not running SBB) and be sure you have good top ventillation.
You can't dynamically adjust for changes in thermodynamics - to many variables. give the hive good breath, keep your 'dry' sugar on on and trust the bees to adjust accordingly - good luck and warmer weather.
You can't dynamically adjust for changes in thermodynamics - to many variables. give the hive good breath, keep your 'dry' sugar on on and trust the bees to adjust accordingly - good luck and warmer weather.
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