February, probably the hardest month for northern bees and their keepers. The bees have been inside for several months now with no fresh pollen or nectar coming in, resources are running low, dead bees are piling up on the bottom boards blocking the lower entrances and reducing ventilation, the populations are diminishing making it harder to keep the broodnest warm. Fortunately, this winter we’ve had warm spells between the extreme cold periods and the bees got out for cleansing flights and were able to clear out some of the dead bees. Without the opportunity for cleansing flights, the inside of the hives would be a mess and bees would be sickened in their effort to clean it up. The hard part for this beekeeper is watching dead bodies accumulate outside of the hives and wondering if there’s enough left to keep the queen and brood warm during the next cold snap. The queens are laying now to replace winter losses to have enough bees for spring buildup. During a cold period, the cluster will contract tighter to maintain the required 94 degrees F around the brood for proper development. If this colony contraction moves the bees away from their food source for more than a few days, the colony will freeze. There’s nothing the beekeeper can do to prevent this, it’s just part of nature. I find myself fretting when I see dead bees piling up and the temperature dropping yet again, and then send a little prayer off into the cosmos that they may make it through. The prayer does me more good than the fretting. I put mouse guards in front of several hive entrances this winter, but I didn't expect to trap a mouse inside of the hives. Obviously I was a bit late in getting the guard on one. I noticed a lot of chewed out reducer and removed the guard to find this: (The screening that's visible is the screened bottom board.) The reducer is pretty well destroyed by a mouse unsuccessfully trying to get out of the hive. The guard kept it in. No mouse came flying out and I didn't hear any rustling when I removed the guard, so it may be dead. I can hardly wait for a 60 degree day to lift the hive and see what happened. Hopefully the frames aren't destroyed. Today some of our members are holding a beginning beekeeping class, and I'm looking forward to hearing about how that went. The last I heard there were 11 students enrolled in today's class, and they will all be getting an ECWBA membership for 2019. I hope they attend our meeting on Saturday. On Tuesday (Feb. 12) some of our members will be putting on a presentation about honey bees and beekeeping for interested persons at the Fond du Lac Library at 6:00 p.m. in the McLane Room. All interested ECWBA members are encouraged to attend to share your knowledge and experiences. We should arrive around 5:30 to get things set up. There's no specific topic set for Saturday's meeting, and everyone is invited to bring whatever they would like to share about beekeeping (as always). In March (March 23) I plan to focus on what to do with survivors; specifically, swarm prevention. We should probably review bait hives at that time as well, to catch the swarms that happen in spite of our best efforts to prevent them from getting away. In April I think we should meet at the Meadery and do a club inspection of the hives whether they survive or not (so far they are both alive). If they don't make it that far, we can autopsy the hive to try and determine why they died. If they make it, we can decide if a reversal is in order, or a split, or just give them more growing room. Remember that if you're interested in attending the Beekeeping Conference 2019 at the Northcentral Technical College in Wausau on March 16 to register before March 1 to get the $10.00 discount. Those planning to go can make carpooling arrangements at Saturday's meeting. https://www.ntc.edu/calendar/2019/03/16/beekeeping-conference-2019 Let me know if you have a topic that you would liked discussed among the membership. We're all at different places in our beekeeping journey, and we focus on different aspects of the art and science of beekeeping. Between us all we've learned a lot, and this should be shared among the membership. Like the guy on TV, "We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two". Saturday, February 16, 9:30 a.m., Caestecker Public Library, Green Lake See you Saturday (and perhaps Tuesday). Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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