April 30th - and all's well

We're getting off to a good start this year with one hive that wintered over and looks strong.  The second hive is a start-up where I purchased a package of bees and added the early in the month.  The bees seem to be happy and thriving in their new home.

This is the new hive with a package of bees added early April

This is hive that wintered over.  Note how dirty it is!  I need to clean it early morning before the bees come out. I just  made the opening larger because bees were backed up at the entrance

I switched from d-cell batteries to power my electric fence to a marine battery.  This will hold the charge longer so that hopefully I won't run low and bears attack, like last year.   My plan is to pretty up the area with potted plants that can sit on the stumps within the hive area.

I've also set up a viewing area in front of the hives where I get a good view with my binoculars. I love to sit there after work with a glass of wine and watch the bees to see what they're bringing in.  Last night the pollen was pretty bright yellow, where a week ago, it was more cream colored.

I am hoping this area is surrounded by plants later in the season!

my 100th post

I wonder who is listening :).

Today is April 3, 2015 and the temperature in southern Vermont was around 60 degrees.  The bees have been flying around these last few days of warmer temperatures.  So I grabbed my binoculars, and took my coffee with me to my chair near the hives so that I could observe.  I love to do this and this was my first time this year.

What I was surprised to see was them bringing in pollen!  They were coming in with something orange, something white and something more like grey.  The way they are working, I think there must still be a queen in there.  I haven't interrupted them yet but I'm anxious to get a look look sometime soon.

I have peaked in when I change out their cedar pillows, which I did a week or so ago. I can't unwrap them yet nor pull out the cedar pillow...there are still cold nights so I'll hold off on doing that until end of  the month or early May.  Perhaps I'll do it when the new bees arrive.

The bees that survived the winter are my older Italian bees.  The Carolins seemed to disappear after the bear strike last July.

Today, I checked the batteries for the electric fence and barely had enough charge to keep a mouse out of there so I changed the batteries.  Last year, the bear came about the second week of April so I'm on red alert.  I will need to check the batteries daily until I hook up the marine battery I purchased last week.  I am waiting for a local beekeeper to come over and show me this first time so that after this, I can do it on my own.  In the meantime, I'll use my D cell batteries that work fine for shorter times.
\