Warm in M.R. and bees enjoying it too

[Cindi]

Today was a beautiful day.  The temperature at 1:00 P.M. was +16 celsius (60 F).  Now at 8:30 P.M. it is +12 celsius.  This is our typical spring coming on fast here.  The frogs are now croaking lots.  I was outside a few minutes ago and they are beginning their spring songs.  Beautiful.  We have the little green tree frogs, they change from greeen to brown depending upon their mood (LOL). 

The bees were out, having a good time too.  Peeked in the stronger one to see how their pollen patty was.  There is a small patch of capped brood and larvae on each side of one frame, in about the same position.  I guess the terrarium heater really did assist to keep this colony warmer. 

I did not even peak into the weaker colony, I am going to leave it alone for another week or so, then I will check.  The pollen patty on the stronger colony was just beginning to show signs of bees eating it.  There is lots of honey in this colony and the weaker one, at this point there is no fear of starvation.  If there is a need, I have many frames of honey/pollen in my freezer that I can give.  I would bring them to room temperature firstly, of course.  I did quickly lift the inner cover on the weaker one to see if it had honey too.  Yes, lots.

These are Carniolan.  Definitely, no queen supercedure last year.  This was a Carniolan package hived last April and these bees are dark.  All have a wonderful night and new day.  Cindi

[BEE C]

Did my first real spring inspection.  Weather was a nice balmy sixteen degrees celsius.  Cleaned off the bottom boards, which did pretty good compared to the debris I have found on solid boards.  Much less mould.  Found that only the outer frames were mouldy, possibly because I had two 8mm entrances at the bottom of each hive?  The bees were busy cleaning the outer frame when I pulled it to examine.  It seemed to be the pollen stores that were mouldy.  I removed the entrance board and put new ones on.  I left them open during the inspection because bees were traffic jammed waiting to get in.  Reduced the entrances to one per hive, 16 mm.  (good thing because i read your email later cindi).  Fed some fumagillin b and lemongrass oil in one quarter liter feeders to stimulate feeding.  Definitely notice more uncapping signs on the bottom board.  Hey cindi, when did you start to feed last year?  Did you check your notes on that yet...? :-D Looks like the temp should be 10 degrees average for the next week.  Ron is starting to feed his strong hives in preparation for pollination season, I believe.  The frogs croaking now is nice, means other insect populations are starting, assuming the frogs are still in synche with them...

[Cindi]

Your pictures are great. Your pollen patties look just like mine (LOL). 

This metric stuff drives me nuts.  How many cm in a mm or how many mm in a cm.  Crazy.  I still, after all these years get confused.  I still like inches and feet, although metric is pretty accurate in many ways, compared to Imperial. Hold on, I will get a ruler.

OK

1 inch = 25mm
1 inch = 2.3 cm (approx)  let's go 2.5 to make it rounded off

Steve, you said that you reduced the entrances to 16 mm.  No.  That is too small.  That is only just over 1/2 inch.  When you come over one day I will show you the entrance reducers, the slot is in the middle and is at least 1 inch in width.  You must change your reducer entrance to a larger size.  The bees need more ventilation than 1/2 inch to provide good airflow to have moisture released from the hive.  Do that.  Change it.  Even if you have to just use a piece of wood with a larger opening on one side for now.

When the weather warms up more in April (middle) then remove the entrance reducer completely!!!!!

We do not start to feed our "non-commercial" colonies the 1:1 s.s. until at least the third week of this month.  Last year I began feeding on March 23, as per Ron's instructions.  You don't want to mimic the nectar flow too early.

On March 12 last year the AFB sugar powder mix was applied to the end bars of the colonies.  One scoop on the hive tool dribbled on the end of the top bar, crosswise.  This should be applied four to five days apart for 3 times if you are going to apply it.  I am not.  If you need the AFB powder mix, I have it.

Have an awesome and beautiful day.  Cindi

[mpjourdan]

I wish the US would convert to metric, only the British could devise a system as missed up and backwards as one based on inches, feet, yards, cups, and teaspoons.  I think its an embarrasement to Americans to contuine using a system thats so obviously inferior.

[Brian D. Bray]

Americans are a mixture from the rest of the world.  One melting pot of humanity of all races and nationalities.  Keeping the antiquated inches, feet, yards, rods, and miles is one of the few traditions from the old world we still cling too.  One of the biggest complaints about America is that it isn't like the rest of the world.  When you take the rest of the world and melt it together what you have is America.
You shouldn't be condeming the US for being different or not conforming--you should be celebrating the depth of deversity as we Americans do.

[reinbeau]

I just can't do metric.  I've tried.  Inches and Feet are too ingrained in my thinking - I have the same problem with Celsius temps.  Firefox has a Converter extension I depend on to make the conversions for me on the net.

[Mici]

oh dear, how can you have a "boundary" if it's not at 0, the difference between - and + it has to be 0!! you just can't have things freezing at what? 20°
even with m and cm and mm it get's hard to be exact at beekeeping, let's say the queen excluder has 4,2mm how in the world can you write it down in inches!?!?!?
metric pwns imperial :-D :mrgreen:

not to mention that huge galon!

[Billy The Beekeeper]

Most of that dont bother me cause im a Adv. Chem2 student in High School and a Trig/Precalc student so i usually figure it out pretty quickly but i like how here in the US we r diff it makes us Unique :)     :mrgreen:              Goodluck to u all :D

[Jerrymac]

Freezing is at 32.

You know what ever it is you were raised on. I know what a yard is. I can visualize it in my head. I can not comprehend a meter. I have to remind myself that it is indeed close to a yard.

As far as temp is concerned. Fahrenheit is more accurate than Celsius. With Celsius you have freezing at zero and boiling at 100. With Fahrenheit you have freezing at 32 and boiling at 212. There is only 100 points C compared to 180 points F.     

[BEE C]

Cindi,
I don't know exactly how big the entrances are :-P but its big enough to stick my thumb into...but I will relax a bit now.  I was out there today and replaced one of the pollen patties.  The bees were out of cluster and I don't think those last pictures caught how many bees there are in the one hive.  I thought it was the smaller hive, but it is eating more pollen and there are a lot of bloody bees. :-D  After talking with ron I pulled out the entrance feeders out of the hut, but did dribble a little onto the pollen pattie top.  So far so good.

[mat]

Brian, very well said. I sign it with both my hands. I am an immigrant from Europe, I switched to "inches" without any problems, and I do not see any superiority of metric system. This is the greatest country and has nothing to be ashamed of.

[Cindi]

Steve, if you can stick your thumb into the reducer it will probably suffice with width.  We will need to remove the reducers come middle of April I venture.  But that also depends on the size of the hive too.  Sounds like your hives are doing really well.  If you have Carniolans from Ron, they will have the small winter cluster, that is their trademark, but this breed has very fast spring build-up.  They are referred to in text as the "spring bee" and can forage quite some time before Italians, for example, as they can stand a somewhat colder temperature.  Sounds like they are building up really fast.  Good.  Keep feeding the pollen patty, sounds like they are enjoying it.  Wait until the third week of this month before feeding.  We are almost there now though.  Best of the great day.  Cindi

[Brian D. Bray]

Here's something for you to research:  It has come to my attention that the metric system was first proposed during the Continental Congress that gave rise to the United States constitution and the American monetary system. 
The arthor of the monetary system that was accepted was also the arthor of the metric system.  He later served as Ambassador to France and became a US President.  Thomas Jefferson.
It is ironic that the French, who currently have little use for the US adapted the metric system that the US Rejected.  They've used it as a source of superiority ever since.

[Michael Bush]

The expert is the guy from out of town.  :)  Berdan was an American who invented the Berdan primer which is used in Europe.  Boxer was an Englishman who invented the primer which is used in the US.

[Cindi]

Brian and Michael, now that is very interesting stuff.  A little on the deep side for me, but I love these type of facts.  Best of the good day.  Cindi