Hello folks,
I've been away for a while, working on a new job opportunity that looks very promissing but has also taken up a lot of my time.
Well I took the opportunity with the warm weather the other day to take a look into my hives. I found that two of my five hives are dead. Bummer. The other three are doing well from what I could see. One of the three was very active.
I just opened the tops and looked down in. The healthy looking hives I just put the lids right back on and re wrapped. The dead ones I pulled a few frames out of the top box just to see what I could. There seemed to be plenty of stores for them. I am going to assume that they froze. I have them wrapped with bubble insulation but ventilated so that there isn't a condensation problem, but freezing is the only answer that I can see at this point. I didn't get a chance to dig down into the hives and see more. Maybe other answers will reveal when I get a chance to do this.
In the mean time I still have three healthy looking colonies!!
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.
Alfred
Cleaning your deadouts now will be a lot easier than waiting til they are a moldy mess inthe spring. Just don't bang frames and break wax. Look for dead mites on botom board and tell us what you find please.
>Cleaning your deadouts now...
Unless it's 70 F out, I don't clean them out anymore. Often they are just lethargic and they get some sun on them and you find out they are alive. I wait until they are "warm and dead".
Thanks for the feedback. I will give them some time and wait until it is warmer before I really dig in there.'
Alfred