The deep freeze has moved out of the area for now, and the temperatures will be relatively warm for the next several days. I hope that everyone took a little time to scrape the frost off the inner covers today because tomorrow it will most likely melt and drip on to the bees if you didn't. Advantages to the warmer temps the next several days is that the clusters can relocate to a food source and the bees will be able to get out for cleansing flights. They can also clean out dead bee bodies: The above is hive G2, located on the far end of a 40 acre alfalfa field. It wasn't bad crossing that field today but I was surprised at the number of bee bodies on the snow. You can also see brown spots from cleansing flights. I checked all of my hives today (to scrape off frost) and am happy to report that they are all still buzzing, as are the two club hives. I made sure they have enough sugar to last a couple of weeks (some colonies haven't even touched the sugar yet) and I added a half of a Bee Pro patty to all. The bees should have enough pollen stored to carry them through until the maples bloom in March, but just in case..... Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today, so there's supposed to be an early spring. That would be nice. I'm getting anxious to get back into the hives. A couple of things have come up that I wanted to get out to you right away.
I had mentioned about the snafus I experienced in trying to procure Hive Alive in an effort to extend cost savings to members that are interested in using it. The dust has finally settled and I received a total of (10) 100ml bottles and a 500ml bottle. As stated in that email, the 100ml bottles are $15.00, and the 500ml will be distributed at $4.45/ounce. It's first come, first serve, and (5) of the 100ml bottles are already spoken for. I will bring the 100ml bottles to the February and March meetings, and ounce distribution will be at the March meeting. February 11 is St. Gobnait's Feast Day. St. Gobnait is a patroness of beekeepers and you can read a little about her story here if you'd like: https://thinplacestour.com/st-gobnait-patron-ballyvourney-county-cork/ Lastly, the Minutes from our January 19 meeting are attached. That's it for now, just a few quick notes and the Minutes. Tucker is impatiently waiting to go for a walk, so I gotta go. Enjoy the heat wave. Gerard
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
|