The holiday season is coming to an end and now comes that long, cold, relatively dormant period until spring. It's a time of little beekeeping activity except to check that the bees have food and that critters aren't moving in to the hives. I have mouse guards on several of my hives that seemed to be at risk earlier in the winter, but the majority are open for easier cleanout of dead bees, by the bees.
Above is a photo, taken this morning after the fresh snowfall, showing that there's quite a bit of critter traffic between my hives. They could be mice, shrews, moles, voles, whatever. They're around, there's no doubt, but they don't seem interested in taking up residence with honey bees. (There weren't any paw prints in the snow on the landing boards.) Not yet, anyway. Another photo taken this morning shows quite a few dead bees that have been removed from a hive by undertaker bees. It was a balmy 20 degrees when this was taken. (Notice the dead bees are on top of the fresh snow.) I wanted to share this because we often read and hear that bees stay clustered when the temps are below 30F, but obviously some stay busy with house duties. I heard one bee flying very close to my ear shortly after taking this photo. Maybe she was taking a cleansing flight, or maybe it was her time to die and she left the hive one last time. Who knows? I didn't lift any covers today because tomorrow is forecast to be better weather for that. The prediction is 36F with a clear, sunny sky. It's supposed to be breezy with gusts up to 23 mph, but I just wait for the gusts to pass before opening. I take a quick look under the cover and close it. If they need sugar I wait for next lull and put it in. In and out in a couple of seconds. And I've found that when the sun is shining, it feels a lot warmer than the thermostat says it is. Now is the time to prepare for the 2019 season. I think I'm in pretty good shape as far as extra woodenware and foundation is concerned, and I took advantage of Cyber Monday sales to stock up on supplies that I never seem to have enough of. Watch for after Christmas sales, and get on mailing lists. This can be an expensive hobby and a penny saved........ And if you're planning to replace equipment or increase your number of hives, winter is a great time to assemble boxes and frames. Now is the time to also consider package bee and nuc purchases. Fred has a list of suppliers on our blog and is adding more as he becomes aware of them. Note that prices have not gone down from 2018 (or any other year for that matter), and some sellers are sky high. For everyone that is taking beekeeping seriously, it's less costly if we can keep our bees alive over winter. We aren't always going to be successful, but if we do nothing to help them we will lose them. A huge benefit of being a member of a club is to hear from each other what seems to help and what totally doesn't. Queen markings for 2019 will be green. I usually see forest green markings, which I find hard to detect on a queen's back. It doesn't help me to spot the queen quickly on a frame, but it's fine if I just want to know that the queen hasn't been superceded. This year I had gotten a forest green paint marker because it was all I could find locally, but I returned it when I found a fluorescent green paint marker on eBay. My marked queens should be easier to spot this season, after they're marked. We will be having elections for Vice-President and Treasurer at our next meeting, and all members-in-good-standing (dues paid) are eligible for nomination and voting. We will hold these elections at the beginning of the meeting because I'm pretty sure we'll want to visit with Tim Wilbanks after his presentation on how nucs and package bees are put together on a commercial scale. All other business will also be addressed before Tim's talk. That includes where we're at with holding beekeeping classes and organizing our upcoming talk at the Fond du Lac library on February 12. Next meeting: January 19, Caestecker Library, Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. Happy 2019 to all! May it be good and prosperous for us and our bees. Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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