Snow, snow, snow!

I don't mind snow, in fact I rather look forward to it. However, this is a LOT and very early for so much! I am not worried about the bees. I have done all I can do for now. They are insulated and I have as much sugar water as I could fit into each hive. The rest is up to them. I make sure I have the upper entrances open and they have adequate ventilation. On the horizontal hives I make sure they have at least some way to get out, although on both hives they can get out through side upper entrance holes. I did notice that the bees on the vertical hive in our experimental apiary opened up their previously propolized top entrance holes. I guess they do know what they are doing after all. Now I wait. If a I get a nice day (we haven't seen sun since I can remember!), and it is not too cold, I will check sugar water stores, but nothing in the forecast indicates that will happen very soon. If we have a hard winter and these bees survive after all they have had to fight with this season, I say let's propagate these bees! So, settle in to your warm winter nest, catch up on some winter bee reading, attend a few classes and get ready for spring.