[alexlloyd]

I have two hives that I relocated into my garden shed for the winter. -20 to -30 for long periods is the norm and I want to be able to monitor. I usually open the door for a few minutes every other day to vent the shed, and check the girls. After a two week holiday, this is what I found.

They all appear to come from the right hand hive. The left hive is exactly how I left it a month ago

Do I have an issue, or is this newbeek-nerves.

Alex

 

[Axtmann]

It looks like the girls running out of food.

 

[alexlloyd]

I have a -5 day tomorrow (22-25). Should I feed some dry sugar or fondant. And should I be opening the box to get it inside the inner cover.

 

[honeyshack]

Wintering in a shed is tricky. Once you let light in they come out and can not find their way back in too well. If you want to winter indoors, PM Ian..on the forums, and in Manitoba on how to do it.

I live 2.5 hours north of you and we winter outdoors. A few hives look like that and that can be to the weird fall we had and maybe some of the older bees dieing off. How heavy were the hives when you put them in the shed? How much food did they take in? Did you pollen sub?
Are their bees flying from this hive now?

Can you pick up the bottom of the hive to get a general feel for how heavy it is?

With those wraps, indoors not a good idea. They need the sun to warm them up. They might be too warm and possibley ate alot of food. Get a handle on what they weigh by picking up the front of the bottom board.

I saw on your profile you were in the military...did we meet at the auction sale in poplarfield? Are you going to the bee convention in Brandon this year?

 

[France]

As already mentioned, shuck those plastic wraps, they keep in humidity and they sweat on the inside.
Do you have the top entrance?

Bees in that kind of cold (a bit nicer than ours) they need top entrance. If not for nothing else - the cluster is on top and for them to get out, they have to go all the way down and out. In winter, on a warm day, it is still too much for them and they don't make it back up.
If one has the top entrance... By "entrance" I mean, a cut notch in the bottom side of inner cover rim, (1/4" x 2.5 - 3" !) There they have only a short hop to the outside and when they realize that is cold, they can get back, pronto!
Some, here and there, will stay out, but nothing like you have on those pictures. . .

They also need quiet. They are especialy sensitive on vibrations.
Who knows, who or what, disturbed them when you were away? Something made them come out when they should not!?
I went visit mine last Saturday and had to leave right away, cause they knew that I was there, by only walking around on snow.
(but I also forgot to turn off the Critter Gitter)
They were coming out and falling in the snow. It was only one degree C. But they are all still there and God willing, they will be there when the spring arrives?
It looks like it may be early this year?

Good luck, fellow countryman...