Inspection day

[Vance G]

Was almost 50 today and the wind was relatively down.  I decided after looking at the forecast, it might be my last chance to look for quite a while so I opened lids.  All are still alive and some never ventured out to see who was lifting their house to weigh it.  They have used amazingly little honey since mid October when I last weighed them, less than 15 pounds avg  per colony in the two months.  Only problem was about half were loosely clustered right up under the lid.  In fact three had bees from wall to wall at the top!  I hope they are reorganizing stores!  Being a worrier, I put my 2 1/2" spacers on about half the hives and will go back out with sugar and newspaper to put some mountain camp insurance on the top bars.  In the past I saw too many colonies starve after tunneling thru a lot of honey and dying against the bottom of the cover.   I wish I had some bee pollen to put with the sugar!  I will have a couple pollen traps this spring so I have pollen for times like these!    The forecast calls for 30 to 40 on Wednesday as my next marginal opportunity to put on the sugar.  After that it is who knows!  Could be months after that to get to much above freezing or zero for that matter.

[Michael Bush]

It's late winter and early spring when they start burning through the stores while raising brood.

[Vance G]

Yes sir and that is why I think I will put an insurance policy of dry sugar on top.  What are your feelings about pollen sub?  I should wait til February or March with that shouldn't I?  If I put it in patties, the sugar would just dissicate it and turn it into a rock.  If I put it in dry, I wonder if that might fill up their bowels.  We usually get flight days but we may not for months!