What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[Ben Framed]

Lookin' good! 

[NigelP]

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[The15thMember]

I finished scraping all my boxes and frames yesterday and got my boxes all stacked up to the ceiling.  Hopefully this will give us a little extra room to maneuver in the garage, especially when the truck is in.  Of course I'll have to take some of the stacks back down to get the Christmas decorations in couple of weeks, but such is life.   

[Terri Yaki]

I just checked on them. There's a little bit of activity going on but not much.

[The15thMember]

I did my OAV today.  Everything very well, except for the 10 or so bees from the mean hive who decided to attack the wand and got their bodies burned to a crisp.    The weather was perfect, sunny, breezy, and a high of around 50F.  We had a light dusting of snow overnight, but it was melted by about 9:00 AM.   

[Terri Yaki]

Mine are all tucked in, snug as a bug in a rug. I can hear some buzzing with my ear up close, no stethoscope required. I'm thinking about getting an IR camera that works with my iPhone but right now, my piggybank is empty.

[The15thMember]

All the colonies had around 20 mites on their bottom board inserts, except the small mean hive that had only 1 or 2.  So I feel good about that, now it's just hefting and checking moisture quilts until spring.  I did notice that one of the colonies is already up pretty high in their stack, which I'm kind of surprised about.  They didn't feel too light, but I'll be keeping a close eye on them.  I spent the rest of the afternoon painting some equipment for next year and listening to podcasts.

[Terri Yaki]

How did you determine how high up they were?

[The15thMember]

When I went to tape up the hole in their inner cover for the treatment, I could see them clustered below it.  Most colonies had no bees in the top box that I could see. 

[Terri Yaki]

We're in the high 40s, sunny, and calm so I went out to the hive. They're doing a little bit of flying so I popped the  lid to see what I could see and for the first time, there were no bees up top. I'll have to take my stethoscope out and see if I can figure out where they are.

[The15thMember]

It was somewhat warmer today, with the high grazing 50F, so I decided to heft and check moisture quilts, since for the rest of this week it's going to be cold or rainy.  I have two colonies feeling lighter, but not so light that I felt the need to crack their seals and feed them, but they likely will need feed before spring at this rate.  I was dismayed to find that Cinderella's inner cover hole was taped shut, since I must have forgotten to remove it after their OAV treatment!  This meant they had no ventilation except their ~1 in. entrance, so hopefully that didn't cause a problem.   

[beesnweeds]

so hopefully that didn't cause a problem.

Not at all, you made a condensing hive.  With a slight pitch forward bees do really well.

[The15thMember]

It can be very humid here, so ventilation is important for me, but it has been pretty dry this week.  My stands do have a slight pitch forward, so that makes me feel better.  My one hive actually is leaning a little too far forward, due to the cinder blocks shifting over time, and I was disturbed today to see that the top box was staggered forward about 1 cm compared to the box underneath it, which is not how I left it during my final inspections.  It's far too cold to crack boxes right now, but when/if we get some warmer temps, I'm going to have to remedy that. 

[Terri Yaki]

i just checked to see if the hive had blown away and it's still there and intact.

[The15thMember]

I have all my colonies strapped down expressly so I never have to wonder that myself.  I don't want to be lying in bed on a windy, stormy night and thinking "Gosh, I wonder if any of my hives blew over".   

[Terri Yaki]

I gassed 'em. Those who were out didn't think much of being locked out but by the time I opened the door back up, they were gone. I don't know if they squeaked in on the end where there is a big enough gap if they try hard enough or if they went somewhere else for a while. 50F isn't enough to kill them if they're out in it for a while, is it?

[The15thMember]

No, they'll be fine, especially if it's sunny.  I'm inclined to think they probably sneaked in; I have bees sneak around my OAV wand all the time.

It's getting up to 62F here today, which feels like spring after almost a solid week and a half of highs in the 40s.  All my bees are out stretching their wings and going to the bathroom while the getting's good! 

[bwallace23350]

I did my last check for the winter. I noted that one hive will probably need to be fed over the winter while the other is fine. I will probably top feed.

[The15thMember]

Another round of hefting and quilt checking today.  I decided to give two colonies some emergency feed.  They are probably fine, but the hives were light enough that it's making me nervous and in the one colony the cluster was all the way up in the top of the stack, so better safe than sorry.  I still haven't lost a colony purely to starvation, and I don't intend to start now.  I also put a ring of wood ash around each stand to try and keep the sugar ants at bay.  I can't understand how those little tiny ants can even be out in cold temperatures. 

[Lesgold]

Tested 16 hives for varroa over the past couple of days. Was surprised that the little critters are not here yet. They are getting very close according to the online heat map.