My get through the winter list of things to do

I like to write in this blog even though I've been a slacker lately.  It's a good outlet to just put  my thoughts down on things that interest me. And since other than family and friends, nature is what interests me, and I don't really like cold, I need to figure out what to do to keep me interested and happy in the winter months.

Here are some things I hope to do this winter.

• Make candles from the beeswax I've saved
• paint some outdoor chairs that are rusting
• pick up a needlepoint of a starfish and complete it so I can use as a pillow or wall decoration in Maine
• Ride 5 miles on my exercise bike at least 4 times a week
• Go ice skating
• Curl up and read good books with a hot drink beside me
• Spend hours with seed catalogs getting ready for spring!
• Clean the greenhouse and wash the seed trays
• Use scrap wood to make structures and/or planters for the garden

Secondly, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few Blog comments the other day...they were sent a year or so ago...but they somehow landed in my google account.  It was so gratifying to hear that this blog had inspired a woman to not mow as much lawn but instead keep or plant low-growing plants instead.  YES!  That's what it's  all about. 

A sharing of knowledge or lack thereof!  Keep the comments coming in. They're great!

Thanksgiving storm

We'll see if it happens, but an 8-12-inch snow storm is expected starting tomorrow.

I'm thankful, of course, for my family and friends but my bee-related thanks are for these things.

• I came home from summering in Maine 6 weeks ago to enable me to get some stuff done before snow came...which ended up coming very early so glad I did it in time.
• Then before the cold snap about 10 days ago, just before, I wrapped my hives in roofing paper and added bales of hay around 3 sides...again, whew..I just made it.
• I also added the cedar filled pillows that, hopefully, with fingers crossed, will take care of the moisture in the hive.  I added the pillows to a super with a screen stapled to the bottom so bees can't get to it.  I made two pillows per hive so that as one pillow gets wet from condensation dripping down, I will swap out the wet for the dry pillow. I swapped out the pillows just before the storm but they weren't too wet yet...again, I think that's a good thing.
•  I'm thankful I closed up the entrance, leaving just about a 1 inch opening. Last year, I forgot. This is to keep cold out out of the hive as much as possible, while leaving a small opening for bees to get out as they need to (one note on that...I should have a one-inch hole somewhere near the top of of the top deep hive so that, if snow accumulates, they have another opening...also just for ventilation.)  I haven't done that yet until I have an empty deep hive.  I can't very well do it with bees inside.   I've yet to see an explanation on how others do that. I'm thankful I remembered this detail this year.
• I have a bee food source in patty form that I made a year or so ago.  So far, the bees haven't touched it in either hive.  I hope it's because they have plenty of honey so don't have to resort to that.

Now it's December 1 and see several months ahead of cold weather. I do hope I've improved my bee knowledge enough to get through the winter. 

Getting ready to winterize the hives

I've gone two months without posting anything!  It's been an interesting summer trying to be a beekeeper when I wasn't living where the bees are. It made me nervous and then there were two bear incidents and a new fence and new electric solution which I'll try next year.  This year, I used the same battery pack controller as in the past few.  Next year, I'll use a car battery to operate the fence since it'll last longer without losing its charge.

However, even with the trouble, in late August, I extracted about 5 gallons of honey.  I was surprised I got that much after the bear visits.  But getting Jeff over to install a new fence quickly and getting it electrified with a strong current really helped save the hive.  It's expensive honey though when you add up all the costs.

Mouse guard on hive that is wrapped for the winter.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the  mouse guard for one of the hives was laying on the ground about 3 feet away from the hive.  I opened the hive, and looked at some frames and didn't see any mouse signs.  I thought for sure that was what knocked the guard off the hive entrance.  I hope it's in place when I go back next week.

Mouse guards typically go on the hive in the fall when mice are looking for a warm place to live. Later on, say November in the Northeast, it will be replaced by the entrance reducer using its smallest opening.  This helps block out cold air.

It's getting near the time to winterize the hive.  This year, I will use cedar shavings in pillowcases that I've made.  These will catch any moisture that drips from condensation.  I will have 4 so that I always have two dry to replace the two in the hives.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to wrap in roofing paper.  I was told by a Maine beekeeper that the paper needs to lay out in the sun for some number of hours prior to using it.  That gets rid of toxins in the paper.  It also might be what killed my bees last winter.  I've read that many beekeepers don't wrap their hives and the bees survive.  I think I might be able to do that if I pile bales of hay around them as insulation.  Of course, that attracts mice too so some people don't use hay for that reason.  But I have not noticed mice around but I've seen a few snakes around the hay.

I believe I can keep this fence in place all year without needing to remove it.  The old sheep fence had to be brought in.  I was always nervous about when to  bring it in...I needed to be sure the bears were in hibernation first.  But this year, I will check, but think it stays in place. I may not have to electrify it in the winter though so I'll move that unit in or cover it.

So I'm feeling it's time to go to Vt. and spend the winter as I have a lot to do there.  Speaking of the Vermont house, if you remember, I built a $40 patio a year or two ago and I wanted to report on it, after some time has gone by.

Here are some thoughts:

1.   Weeds just love wood chips. They will creep in quickly.  Notice the mint growing to the right in image above. I'm I'm struggling to keep it in check.  I'm pulling out the most vigorous roots I've ever seen for mint and I know they have strong roots already. These roots are huge and far-reaching!

Bugleweed

Also, I love bugle weed but not on my patio.  Bugleweed is great for places that are eroding because it grows fast, and spreads fast.  It also flowers a beautiful deep blue in the spring. But I'm needing to pull it out of my patio by the handful.  I am reusing some of it in a hilly area where I've had trouble growing anything else and hope it fills it in.

2.  You'll need to keep replacing the chips as they decompose.  My patio needs another layer of wood chips that I hope to get to before the snow flies. Fortunately, I have a pile left that needs to be used.

3.  I've used wood chips on my pathway to the side of the house as well as the patio.  What I found on the pathway is that it's sloped, and the wood chips are light so they wash down to the bottom of the slope in heavy rain.  And we've had a lot of heavy rain.  So I'm needing to rake it back in place quite a lot.  And because some washes right onto the lawn, I seem to lose more of the chips so they'll need replacing too.

4. Use wood chips on flat areas.  I think the pathway would be better with pea stone or maybe even slightly larger stone so it doesn't wash away.

An expensive hobby

Another $450 spent on fencing and labor.  The honey I get this year, no matter how much, is going to be expensive. It's amazing how much  money that can get poured into this hobby.

Tomorrow I will go and see the new fencing.   The car battery happened but only for a few days and then we went back to the D cell battery pack to electrify the fence.  According to the hired beekeeper, something came back and moved some of the fence a little.  It sounded to me like the bear came back again but got a very good shock this time so no damage was incurred.  Thankfully.

I will take time to mow around the fenced in area while there to make sure that no grass or weeds touch the fence so that it stays charged enough to keep out the bear.

The hired beekeeper, Jeff, also said the hives should be 6 feet apart.  They are now 1 foot apart.  This is for disease control.  If one hive got mites, it wouldn't so quickly get passed on to the other hive.

There's always something new to learn!

7.27.14 -- Bear came back last week

Well, a few days after putting the hives back together, reenergizing the fence as well as putting it back in place, the bear came back!

This time, he probably got a shock though because he didn't get to the hive and just knocked over part of the fence.  Thankfully.

I had to get more aggressive.  I hired a local beekeeper to go over since I couldn't make the round trip drive again during a work week.  His recommendation was to give up my current fence which is the mesh that is movable and used a lot as a temporary enclosure that can be moved easily.

He suggested a more permanent fence and use a car battery to electrify it so that the shock will be much greater and hopefully a great deterrent.  That was Tuesday.  This is Sunday.  I have no phone calls telling me of additional bear sightings or damage so it's probably working.

I will take photos when I go there next Sunday.

Bear attack on beehives

A dreaded event took place sometime Friday night into Saturday morning....bears attacked my beehives. These were the hives at the end of the day. I prayed the bear wouldn't come back again during the night so that I might possibly be able to salvage something. I'd leave in the morning.l

I made a 3 hour round trip today to put them back together again, fix the fence and reelectrify it.  The issue was that the fence had lost its charge in my absence. And I guess the bear were hungry. I had hired a beekeeper to check the hives and change the batteries last week but this happened before they came. Not sure if I mixed up the hives putting them back together (I had two different varieties). So who knows what those repercussions might be.  I guess we'll see. 

The bees were busy these last several weeks. Even with what we lost, the boxes were all heavy with honey.  I had a tough time moving them.  The super I had put on them were almost full so I added another super to each. We might still eek out a honey crop in spite of it.  We'll see. If there are no further attacks.

 The bear took 6 or so frames of honey...but it was honey the bees need to survive the winter. I'll most likely have to give them some of "mine" to help them out if they can't replace what was taken. I gave them blank frames with no comb so they'll need to work hard. I hope we continue to have cooperation with the weather.

I only found two of those frames no longer in the box or anywhere around.. Maybe I'll come across them licked clean somewhere in the woods during mushroom foraging.

I apologize for being so far away in this shot.  The bees were furious and even with a full bee outfit on, I was stung many, many times in the three hours I worked on the site putting things back together.  The photos were taken just before I left for my return trip so was without my suit now.  I wanted no more stings.  It'll probably take days for them to settle down.  And me.

competition in the chanterelle field

Yesterday I took a walk at my favorite spot for chanterelles.  I've had my eye on them for a few weeks and was told that they are slow growers.  But I wanted to see how much they grew over a 4 day period when we also had some rain. 

Previously, they were too small to pick and I have been waiting for them to grow before I pick them.  But as I walked, I saw a few that were still small and decided to wait for my return before I decide whether or not to pick them. 

Then I got to a patch that had been loaded with the mushrooms and I found nothing at first.  Then, I saw that someone had cut them at the base.  That means another good mushroomer has discovered my patch.  Or perhaps I discovered his or hers.

In one place, I saw they had marked the spot by tying a ribbon to a branch.  I took the ribbon!  And I covered the tiny mushrooms there with leaves so they couldn't easily be spotted.

They missed a few.  Any other time, if I didn't have a mushroom thief to deal with, I would have let these fairly small mushrooms grow another several days.  But this time, I picked them. 

It was either pick them small or don't get any at all.

I just fried them up and these will go into the freezer for some future day.  It's hard though because they smell so good!

June 28 bee check

I went to Vermont to check on the bees yesterday.  Wow.  Two hives is double the work and double the time.  I need to factor in more time on my next visit.  Here's what I found and did:

• I removed the feeders.  They were empty and probably had been for a few weeks.  The weather has been so nice though that I wasn't worried about feeding them really.  But I had made sugar syrup for them and then forgot it in Maine.  That made my decision that I was done feeding until the fall.  I'll feed in the fall until freezing so that they won't have to use up their store of honey.
• I looked at almost every frame.  I cut away some queen cells which makes me nervous.  I sure hope I didn't miss any as I don't want them to swarm!
• The frames otherwise looked good.  They were filled with brood, pollen and honey.  I saw evidence of a queen with many eggs but I didn't see the queen.  In some ways, I hate inspections because I'm afraid I might  kill the queen unknowingly.
• Supers were added to each of the hives so that now I have two deeps and one super on each of them. I hope that, in a month, I can add another super to each hive.  We'll see how it goes.
• The electric fence seemed to have plenty of power so I didn't change the batteries this trip.  I'll probably want to go back in a few weeks anyway to check them as well as the bees.

What a slacker I've been in keeping you up to date!

I did get my bees and got them into two hives with two deeps and a top hive feeder.  I replenished the fence and then left them on their own a few weeks ago and went to Maine for the summer.  I was lucky enough to rent my house for 6 weeks, giving me time to catch up with my second home.

I left the bees on their own but I will be going to check on them next week.  At that time, I will add a super, which, if it is filled, as I hope it will be, will be my honey later this summer.  If I'm real lucky, I'll end up with two supers filled with honey on each hive.  That is  my goal but there are way too many factors that could affect that goal. Things like:

- too much rain
- too cold
- poor flowering on plants
- swarms
- Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
- the queen dying or not producing enough

I had the hives checked, just visually, the other day.  Bees were flying around so that's a good sign things are just humming along over there.  Apparently the garden is also thriving.  How could it not with all those pollinators! 

However, I still need to cut trees.  I do not get enough light to satisfy me.  I see my shrubs and fruit trees becoming elongated which is them trying to reach for more sun.  I will have more cut this fall.

What is there about light?  I heard that it becomes more important the older you get.  Not sure why but I feel like I crave sunshine at times.

I was speaking with a friend who is also a beekeeper.  She was actually my inspiration in a way as I became interested while talking with her and how excited she would be about her bees.  Not to mention the environmental factors involved and the need for bees in this world. I wanted to help in a small way.  But she said that queen bees used to last longer than they do today so that she's found that she was constantly replacing queens.  Our summer is so short that we need to go buy new queens if we lose one.  It takes time for the bees to create a new queen bee trying to get a good honey crop in this area is impossible if you've lost your queen.  She's giving up and will buy her honey from others. I think that's too bad but she did it for many years. 

More bees coming

This week, May 14th, I'll pick up more bees. I had ordered this Nuc back in January I believe...and paid for it which is always a plus. A Nuc is five frames of bees with brood and queen.  I will then put them into their permanent home in a hive right next to the active one.

I was just out watching the bees at the first hive and they were beginning to bring in light yellow and orange pollen in the little sacs on each side of their tiny bodies.  Dandelions are in bloom so I expect the orangey pollen is from them.  Daffodils and lots of lawn flowers that are beautiful before the first mowing I saw some bugle weed in bloom and lots of other flowers but don't know their names.  The weather today is in the high 70's and we're in a warm spell right now so I should see a lot of activity in terms of bees and nature in general. I love spring.

I will get into the hive this week since I've had the current hive for almost three weeks.  I'll see how they have filled the frames in their hive.  Because this first hive was a "package of bees", they came with no frames or brood.  And the queen had to be introduced to them.  So it'll be interesting to see how they're doing in there.  From the outside looking in, it looks like they're doing well.  Stay tuned!

I keep thinking of winter

I've probably mentioned this before about my winter plan this year.  But it bears repeating, if only to get it out of my system.  I am determined to not lose my bees this coming winter.  So I will make cedar shavings pillows!  I have one bale of cedar shavings and I will be making pillows that will fit into a super (this is the box where you collect the honey in the summer). This year, we'll also put a few into use in the winter.  The super will have a screen stapled to the bottom so no bees can get into the box. The shavings will catch any condensation that drips down onto the bees and freezes them during the winter months.  I'm convinced that's what happened to my bees this past winter. So I will be making the cedar pillows this summer to be ready for them later.

A great day for foraging

May 4, 2014
This afternoon, I headed to my favorite spot for fiddleheads here in Southern Vermont and after a slow start, I found a great patch and picked a little from each bunch.  I do that so that more will come next year.

As I was leaving, I saw a group of people in a nearby area and so I hurried away from my spot, hoping they didn't see where I had been or what I had been picking. I worry so about patches of ferns going extinct from overpicking so I at least try to do my part by taking just a little.  Although you can see in the photo that I picked plenty!  More than I ever have at one time.  The timing was perfect.  Some that I saw had already grown too tall and were closer to ferns than fiddleheads.

Then I decided to go check out the ramps that grow nearby.  I had checked on them a week or so ago and they hadn't formed bulbs yet so I checked with some expects on the yahoo group, Northeast Mushrooms and they advised me to make good use of the leaves which are just as good as the bulbs.  I love the bulbs sauteed and then cooked in cream with parmesan cheese over the top. They are delicious.

But I will try sauteing the greens like I would spinach or chard only I won't need to add garlic to these leaves!  They already have a garlic flavor, for those of you who have never had ramps or wild leeks.

All in all, a great day for foraging!  Bon Appetit!

April 24 - Bee package installed

I picked up my package of bees at 7AM today at New Hampshire Honeybee in Gilsum, NH. I was the first customer to arrive so I had my pick of the litter. 

I was told that I should choose a package that had the bees all clustered together, rather than spread out within the screened box they come in.  So I chose a nice cluster and they sat on the floor of the car back to Vermont.

The queen is a marked Italian.  I'm not sure if all the bees are Italian but they are nice, gentle bees.  I didn't get stung at all but I was in my beekeeper's full suit so they didn't have the opportunity to get me!

I had never installed a package so I did some things backwards rather than the order written in Beekeeping for Dummies.  For example, the queen cage didn't have nails to hang it between the frames so I had to go find nails and a rock to do it.  I had never removed the cork from the candy side of the cage either so had to go find something to pry it off with. Next time, I'd be more prepared with these items.

I also dumped the bees into the hive before the queen cage was found inside the travel box.  When I opened the  traveling box, I couldn't find the queen cage because bees were all around it, hiding it.  So I dumped the bees into the new hive...at least as many as possible.  Some refused to come out of the box.  They will find their way into the new hive with all their friends I expect.

I'm back in business!!

April 18th and spring is here and bees are coming soon

Another month has gone by and we are finally...almost....out of the cold weather.  I say that but it's cold this morning but will warm up later today.  The next several days will be spring-like weather. I see tulips, daffodils and hyacinths poking up from the ground now although nothing is blooming yet.  Even the forsythia has not flowered yet but it's coming.  The magnolia tree out front is not showing me anything yet. I don't see the buds on it. I do hope it blooms because it's just a beautiful start to spring. 

The bees will be coming next week...the first batch. The two hives are set up in the yard.  The electric fence is in place and working too.  I had to put it up because last week a bear came through and rummaged through one of the hives last weekend.  Thankfully he/she didn't destroy it, probably because there were no larvae and no honey there right now. But frames and top were tossed around. It's all put back together and protected now so I'm ready for the girls to show up!

Originally I was getting them on Monday, the 21st.  Now it will be Thursday, the 24th.  That will be a 3lb. package of bees.  I will also be picking up a Nuc (5 frames of bees) sometime soon too but I haven't a date yet.

What was interesting is that earlier this week, we had 70 degree weather and my greenhouse was full of bees!!! They must have wintered over in there where I had stored some hives and frames. So I guess I didn't lose all my bees ...most of them were lost to the cold though.  That was a sad day in January.

I do hope to plant some cold weather crops this weekend in the garden...lettuce, peas, kale, chard. Soon we'll see red buds on the trees and we'll be off and running with our summer season.

I see lots of work to be done outside.  I think I am going to hire someone to mow the lawn this year so that I have more time to do fun things in my time off. I'd rather be growing things, picking flowers, taking walks, hunting mushrooms and generally enjoying life than keeping up with the maintenance of a lawn. Plus, there's plenty of work to be done beyond the mowing.

But don't get me wrong.  My "lawn" is whatever is green and growing.  I do not use pesticides, or any other fertilizer on the lawn other than maybe a bit of compost here and there.  Mostly I just let whatever wants to grow grow.  I like putting down clover because the bees love it and like letting anything else flower that wants to.  Again the bees like it...and so do I.  I often will mow around anything flowering.

I hope to keep these bees well beyond the year.  It's too heartbreaking to lose them.  Wish me luck!!

At least one bee survived

Yesterday, March 16th, I went into the greenhouse to finish cleaning up my bee supplies and to move the hives outside to their spot in the yard.  Yes, I'm getting ready for the bees to arrive next month.  And getting ready to plant seeds in the greenhouse so I needed the room. 

On a table, at the end of my mission, I saw a bee thrashing about.  I think I must have knocked her from wherever she was living onto the table.  So I placed her on a frame that I had just cleaned off, and added another frame over her.  She was the only one I saw but it was a welcome sight to see that one of my bees survived the winter!  Not that she'll do anything until there's a queen and you can't make a queen with one bee so I just hope she survives until the other bees arrive.

It makes me wonder if I should winter my bees in the greenhouse.  It has a dutch door so I could keep that door open so that the bees can get out whenever they want.  Otherwise they would be protected from the cold on all four sides...better protection than they get outside.  I had asked about that once and was told the fluctuation of temperature would be an issue (probably due to the condensation within the hive).  I will do some research to see if other beekeepers keep bees in a greenhouse through the winter.

mid March 2014 - doesn't feel much like spring yet

It's tough to write about beekeeping during these cold months.  I am supposed to get my first package of bees in another 6 weeks and I sure hope it is warm enough by then.  That first package is a 3 pound one.
The next bees to come will be a nuc that will be bees and brood and a queen on 5 frames.

These two packages will go into two separate hives that I have ready to go and I will do my very best to keep them alive and thriving this season...and throughout next winter.

Today, it's 40 degrees. I suppose it's melting some of the snow, but not fast enough for me.  I am ready for daffodils and crocuses and hyacinths and tulips...to be followed by forsythia and then lilacs, and all the other flowering spring shrubs. 

I was needing some flowers in the house so picked up a few tulips in a pot that I'm enjoying now and will plant later in hopes that they'll  bloom for me next spring.

Meanwhile, I grew some basil that I'm trying to keep alive until I can plant it outside at the end of May.  But the aphids have found it and I'm at war with them at the moment, picking them or washing them off almost daily.  Today I threw out one of the plants...it was too far gone.  But I have another 3 that are still doing good and will be watching them closely.

I'm anxious to see how the blueberry bushes do this year.  They were large bushes that came from next door and last year, they did pretty well even though they were shocked from the move and replanting. 

I also planted Apple, pear, cherry and peach trees that will hopefully at least bloom this year and maybe even provide fruit.  The peach tree gave me some peaches last year but that is a year older than the others.  Time will tell.  Half the fun of gardening is seeing what the season brings!

Happy gardening!

Getting ready for spring

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since my last posting.  I've pretty much been dealing with splitting wood, stacking wood, moving wood from one place to the other, loading wood into the masonry heater and building fires.  That's my life this winter :).

But there have been a few sunny days here and there where I've gone into the greenhouse where I'm storing my supers and deeps, many of which had dead bees embedding in the comb.  So I've been removing the dead bees, and cleaning the propolis off the sides of the frames and hives...all this to get ready for spring. By the way, after picking out bees with tweezers, I read that you don't need to.  The bees will do all this cleaning for me.  But there were so many bees, that it seems like it would distract them from gathering pollen and making brood so I'm going to finish the job for them this year.

I had also ordered some new frames that need to be assembled; and new super and deep which are now primed and will be painted within the next few days.  I have some turquoise paint that I'll use this time if it's still good.  I'm trying to get rid of some old paint and this will use up just a little bit of it.

Along with getting ready for the bees coming this spring, I have also started some plants that need 8-12 weeks before going outside.  I will start more flowers and vegetables (and herbs) later on as well as buy some.  I do like to use the greenhouse for this but need to wait until later since it's not heated.  I do have a propane heater in there but haven't hooked it up since moving to Vermont. It's too expensive.  I would love to try solar panels for the greenhouse but for now, I will use it as it is.

One other item I want to do this winter is to make cedar pillows to add to the hives in the fall so that I don't lose my hives next winter.  I will need to make 4 of them.  One for each of the hive and one spare for each hive so that I can swap them out as they get wet.  This should take care of any moisture problem in the hive.

Now just hurry up and come, spring! I'm more than ready!

Beekeeping plan for 2014-2015

I've been  lamenting the loss of my bees and looking back to see what I did wrong.  And I am also putting a plan together for next season.

Cleaning out dead bees

I went into the hive yesterday to dismantle it and clean it out.  I was so sad to see the number of dead bees.  I really think the moisture got to them. I never want to see this again so I will make every effort to not make the same mistake again.  I will use this time to clean out the hive, fix any foundation issues and get them ready for spring.  And I will begin to work on my plans for next season. But it's pretty sad to look out and not see my hive in place.

What I did wrong
The bees were ok until late December. So what happened?
- I didn't change out the mouse guard at the entrance of the hive.  I should have put back the wood entrance with only one small hole in use during the winter months. The mouse guard has holes across the entire entrance so it let in too much cold air.  The entrance reducer has a few sizes of openings and for winter, you'd use the smallest one.

Mouse Guard

Entrance reducer

- I have no other ventilation hole up at the top of the hive.  Many people recommending a 1-inch hole near the top so bees can go in and out as well as provide ventilation
- Was the top cover tipped back so that any moisture accumulation wouldn't drip on the bees?  I think this is what killed my bees!!
- Did I leave them enough food for the winter?  I don't think I did but I was feeding them with fondant so I didn't starve them.

New bees coming for 2014

First let me say that this is not a way to get cheap honey!  It becomes expensive when you lose your bees.

I have bought a 3 pound package of bees that I will put into one hive..that cost $100
I also bought a nuc which is 5 frames of bees, honey and brood for $150

I'll get both in late April or early May and I'll be back in business.  Both will have queens so I will be in a good position to just start over.  But needing to buy bees again this year was not part of my plan.

Wintering over bee hive plan for 2014-2015

After watching various video's and reading about this subject, I will try a different approach next winter.

• Leave more honey behind for the bees
• Continue to feed them
• Add a layer of insulation between the outside of the hive and the roofing paper. I have some thin roofing insulation that has bumps in it for airflow so I will staple that to the hive before I surround it with roofing paper.
• To the top of the hive, I will add a super that is empty.  Then I will pack it with cedar bedding that's been packed into a pillow.  That pillow will soak up any moisture in the hive.  After 3 weeks or so, replace the wet pillow with a dry one...just bring in the wet pillow to dry and reuse it next time.
• Then the top cover goes on
• Under the super, between the deep hive and the super, add a piece of screen so that the bees stay below.
• Make sure the entrance reducer is set to its smallest opening

A sad day indeed

My bees have all died.  As regular readers know, I checked the bees and added fondant on 12/19/13 and I saw and heard bees inside the hive.  At that time, I did clean a lot of bees that had died from the bottom of the hive, but that's expected.

Today I wanted to see how they were doing with the fondant and to give them more, if needed.  But no sign of any live bee and no humming at all from inside.

I think that, with the major cold weather we've had this season, it's just too much for them.  I need to figure out how to even better protect them next year.  I know that my bee instructor fixed up an insulated covering using trash bags and stuffing them with some insulating material and I may try that instead of the roofing paper next year.  It seems it would protect them better.

This spring I have two different bee packages ordered to replace these...and my intent is to add a new hive this year to expand my operation.  I'm sad that I must start all over but this, I understand, is common here with our cold winters.

I have ordered one Italian package of bees and the other one is Russian bees.  I would think that the Russian bees might do better in the cold but I'll need to research that and that may determine what I order in future years.