Oooh ya, gonna take the big poops!!!

[Cindi]

Friday afternoon, a great and warm day.  I was outside cleaning up the chickens' houses and thought I would meander over and see what the bees were up to.  A couple of the colonies had a fair number of bees outside, doing the big pooping thing.  They haven't been able to get out since probably the middle of November.  A big poopy day.

Went back to do some more work with the chickens.  Now the ground is still covered in snow.  The "old" chickens I call them only have a walkway from their house to a covered spot, that is where they have been hanging out for days.  The first day it snowed, none of the "old" chickens would come out of their house.  So I shovelled a walkway for them from their house to the covered spot.  They all followed me and the trail, back and forth, boy were they happy, they were pretty housebound (ya, I know that feeling too, eeks).  The other chicken coop and house I call the "new" chickens' house.  It has the ducks, turkey and more chickens that stay in their.  Each set of birds loves their own night homes, they are allowed together during the day, to do what they will.

Right, back to the old chickens.  I cleaned out their poopy house (seems there is alot of pooping going on).  I opened up wide the front of the doors so I could get in and work it good.  Then I placed some great new sawdust in there. At least 2 inches deep, all over.  Well, well, well, if you didn't know it.  These chickens are so nosey.  One came into the small door on the side, she began pecking in the sawdust and then flopped, and I mean flopped down, flipping her wings, rolling and playing like nothing on this earth.  Next thing, in come a whole bunch more.  The sounds of the flopping and bumping around attracted them. They all came in.  Over 20 of the darlings, and then came Rocquefort too.  What a time of their lives they had, rolling, flipping pecking the sawdust.  They are some happy, happy birds.  I closed their house back up, after taking some pictures, and went to look at the bees.

Eeeks!!!  Every last colony, within that half hour or so had come alive and were flyin' and a carryin' on like no tomorrow.  They are all strong and doing well.  Even the little swarm (Carniolan) that is only in one box had bees coming and going.  So......the winter went well.  I hefted each colony at the back, and yes, they still feel heavy, so I know they have lots of food.  This is going to be a good year.  Have a wonderful and great day, Cindi

[Frantz]

Cindi,
Did you say snow on the ground? That is not snow, that is just a heavy frost....
This is snow!!

Have a great day!
F

[Jerrymac]

I was watching one of those "Stupid things people do caught on video" shows yesterday. These two folks were up on the roof to clear off three feet of snow. One guy got in the middle and stomped it a bit. All the stuff broke loose and slid off the roof.... Taking the two people with it.

[JP]

Jerry, I guess they figured that couldn't happen.

Frantz, that's a lot of snow.

Cindi, your bees look active. Did you roll in the fresh straw with the chickens, gotta know?  ;)


.......JP

[Frantz]

Oh, I have plenty of those videos!!! Trust me, my son (9) and I get in all kinds of trouble.. This is him in the bobcat at the controls with my life in his hands....... It was a million laughs the other day that is for sure...

[Sean Kelly]

Speaking of bees pooping, I've got a question for ya'll...

If the bees only poop outside and hold it until the weather get's better, what does the queen do when she has to go?  She only leaves to mate or swarm, so where does she poop?  Hmmm....   :roll:

Sean Kelly

[annette]

She goes in the hive and they clean her up. At least that is what I had read.

Annette

[buzzbee]

The workers dispose of it

[Sean Kelly]

That's what I though.  :-)

Sean Kelly

[Michael Bush]

>what does the queen do when she has to go?

She goes.  Her attendants clean it and her up.

[Brian D. Bray]

So Cindi, was your temps in the high 30's F like mine--lets see, about 2-3 C.

[Cindi]

So Cindi, was your temps in the high 30's F like mine--lets see, about 2-3 C.

Brian, I looked on the weather site for our area.  It said the high was 4C (39F).  But those weather stations are all messed up. I can count that I am about 2 degrees colder.  And that day, in the direct sunshine, it felt really, really warm.  I need to set up a thermometer up at the apiary that is in the sun, full sunshine really can warm things up alot for sure.  That will be one of my agendas in the next two days.

We had 4 more inches of snow yesterday.  It was -8C (17F) when I woke up yesterday morning.  That was dam cold, let me tell you.  But last night it warmed right up and it is now raining.  It is going to be really really nasty with about 10 inches of snow that is going to melt in one day.  AND....they are calling for a heavy wind warning, 60-100 km coming on later on today, so we are buckling down.  I have work to do around here to get ready.

This month of February can be a honker for wind.  I remember some terrible wind storms we have had in February.  One year the power was out for about 2 full days, and it was really, really cold. A pine tree behind my Daughters mobile home had broken off about 10 feet up the trunk and tell on them, thank goodness that it didn't do alot of damage.  But wind scares me.  Most trees are not close enough to our houses (the ones behind her mobile home are cedar, so they are stronger), so that is not the worry, it is the ravine and the creek that runs through it.  The fear of it flooding is minimal because it is so deep, but it still scares me to death.  Well, well, almost through this bleak and nasty winter stuff, this has been the worst winter for cold and snow that I can ever recall, weird stuff.  Have a great and wonderful day, Cindi