On A Limb with Claudia

In the Bee Yard…

I haven’t been able to check the bees this year. In fact, it hasn’t been warmer than fifty degrees since sometime in the middle of October. I usually take a peak every month or so and see how they are doing. Not so this year.

Today it was 55 degrees in the apiary. So I thought I’d take a peak.

The white stuff is snow. If you look closely, there’s thousands (literally) of dead bees around each of the boxes. (2 stacked boxes, 1 rock = 1 hive) There is another stack of bees in the snow behind this hive.

I’ve never seen anything like this. I can only postulate that it was so cold, so quickly that many of the bees died in the hive. The bees were removed by house bees in the last couple of days. I was concerned that the hives might not survive the cold. If you look closely, though, there are bees coming and going from both hives.

And?

These two hive are really healthy. They have lots of food (pollin and honey) to take them through the rest of the winter. WHOO HOO!The hive along the fence died - bees frozen solid. It’s very sad, but I am so delighted that ANY of the hives survived this cold, cold winter.

It’s a good day!

Filed under: Distractions, Update

8 Responses to “In the Bee Yard…”

1. angela, on February 7th, 2007 at 3:47 pm Said:

   Poor little beasts. I’d never thought of insects dying in the cold….
   Are these in your garden? Interesting….
   Angela
   I eventually gave away all the oranges to be turned into marmelade and vin d’orange. So sorry none left for you to throw at your sisters!

2. lone grey squirrel, on February 7th, 2007 at 5:23 pm Said:

   Yeaaaah ! There’ ll be honey this year.

3. nila, on February 8th, 2007 at 5:46 am Said:

   I take it that house bees must be like the house keepers. How interesting. Is this a hobby of yours?

   Mmmmm, I can taste the honey already. I love to have a spoonful of pure honey.

4. Pam, on February 8th, 2007 at 10:18 am Said:

   Your sending all of us a jar or three of honey, right?

5. Open Grove Claudia, on February 8th, 2007 at 3:46 pm Said:

   Angela - Orange honey…. yum… We keep them in our backyard. They’re marginally illegal but our neighbors are busy watching television so they don’t notice them. The bees cluster around the queen and vibrate keeping the hive warm. Some times it’s too cold.

   Squirrelly - YAY! We still have four more months of snow - but the signs are good!

   Nila - Bees move through positions in the hive finally ending up as worker bees. House bees do clean the hive. To bad we can’t train them to clean the house.

   Pam - When I win the Powerball and move to the South of France, I’ll keep bees there. But for now - can’t send the honey out of the country because the Chinese flooded the market with contaminated honey so each country closed their borders to foreign honey. There are amazing politics in honey.

6. Pam, on February 8th, 2007 at 4:30 pm Said:

   Okay. And when you win the powerball, please remember I am your bestest friend in the whole world. (wink, wink)

7. Kevin Charnas, on February 9th, 2007 at 5:31 am Said:

   poor bees…I love bees…and their honey….poor little devils.

8. Open Grove Claudia, on February 10th, 2007 at 12:55 am Said:

   Pam - Yes, Pam. I’ll remember it the next time I’m in the So. of France. wink wink….

   Kevin - Next time you’re in Denver, come visit the bees. We’ll put you in a suit and give you a tour. It’s fun.

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