Winter Plans
I did get my hives wrapped on October 18, 2018. I did not leave upper entrances right now. In fact, I put solid inner covers on and closed the hives up so that the only entrance is the reduced bottom entrance. This is purposeful to reduce robbing as much as possible and to give the bees the best chance to defend the hive. In the past two years the commercial beekeeper has not removed his hives until mid-November. I know he has not removed them yet, but looking today I was
A Staple Gun Helps...
Well, I intended to wrap my hives on Monday, but when I arrived at the hives I realized I had everything I needed except the staple gun. I even had the staples! I had used it in the barn and not put it back in my bee tote. Well, I decided to check the hives anyway and assess their health and note any changes since I checked last. This is the inside of the blue hive, which apparently was queenless. I had suspected so when I checked it last. There were some queen cells in
Ready for winter
Today was in the low 80's which is the warmest it has been or probably will be for quite a while. My goal today was to reduce entrances and make sure the hives had enough honey for winter. I will insulate them on a cooler day. I learned to check the long blue hive first because the bees always keep buzzing me for a while after I close the hive. By doing it first, they are calmed down by the time I want to take off my beesuit. They looked really good. They had a ton of ho
