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!