This winter has been an odd to say the least. By February 7th we had 70 inches of snow, though I don't think that there was any on the ground. Our first snow fall was in early November and it was quite a bit, but by Thanksgiving it was in the mid 50s again, which was the last time I checked on things in the apiary. Every time I saw the swings in the temperature all I could think about was how the bees in the apiary were holding out. So here it is the middle of February and I finally decided to check them again on the 18th of February. We had a 40 degree day and I thought I could at least take a brief look and possibly feed them some dry sugar if needed.
I grabbed my things and a few pounds of sugar and headed out. I have been reading a bunch and talking to people and came to the conclusion that I should at least give them some sugar to see how I might help them this year. I started by tapping on the side of the hives seeing if I could hear the roar of the colony. The first hive I didn't hear anything. I knocked on the second hive and heard a roar. Thinking that the first hive might not have anyone home I started there. First opening the bottom entrance and pulling out a bunch of the dead bees. Anticipating the worst I opened the top of the hive noting some moisture on the cover and removed the quilt box and saw a small cluster of bees. I was excited and then realized that I had bees climbing in my jacket and stinging me.
Even the best laid plan can get thrown out quickly. Laying down some newspaper and some sugar I quickly closed the hive back up, noting a few things that I might do differently next year. As I looked over at the second hive I noticed a small ball of bees on the upper entrance, I decided maybe opening the hive wasn't going to be in anyone's best interest, so I simply took off the top cover and peeled back some of the quilting in the top box. Sure enough the bees were still there in quite a large cluster. Instead of trying to add sugar to the top bars of the frames I decided maybe just adding some on top of the top board would make the most sense. I put in a bit of sugar and closed everything back up. Hoping that I had helped both hives more then hurting them. It is only about another month until there should be a few blooms on the Maples and some warmer weather to let them start foraging again.
Needless to say if you ever see someone in Upstate New York with a bee sting in February you can bet they are a beekeeper.
Comments