I got home too late Monday to do a thorough hive inspection, but still I was able to get a sense how the hives are making it through winter.
Time: 4:00pm Weather: Sunny, 49 degrees, no wind
Hive 1, which is the oldest hive in my apiary, seems to be in much better shape than last year with a good number of (feisty) bees and plenty of food.
Hive 2 produced 80% of my apiary's honey last year and had a good number of bees, but much less than in Hives 1 or 3.
Hive 3 was surprisingly full of bees–and seemed to have ample honey stores. This was the hive that swarmed last June and went into winter with a low number of bees.
Hive 4, which I thought was dead, seems to be hanging on with a very small cluster.
When Hive 4 swarmed last July I captured the swarm and installed it in an old box off to the side (left). I could never find a queen, so I never paid much attention to the few bees that we're hanging out there. But judging from what I saw Monday there must be a queen somewhere. But I couldn’t see a whole lot of stored honey, so I may add a feeder this weekend and see if I can keep this box alive.
So far so good. While there’s still two months of winter left, I’m feeling pretty good that I’ve got five hives that are still alive. And while that number will probably drop to three or four by the beginning of March, that’s still a way better start than last year.
A film about beekeeping and CCD called The Beekeeper is screening at the Sundance Film Festival this week. The filmmaker, Richard Robinson, bills it as “An experimental documentary exploring CCD,” which means it could either be really hokey or really interesting. The trailer on Robinson’s site would suggest the latter.
First Hive Inspection of 2009
I got home too late Monday to do a thorough hive inspection, but still I was able to get a sense how the hives are making it through winter.
Time: 4:00pm
Weather: Sunny, 49 degrees, no wind
So far so good. While there’s still two months of winter left, I’m feeling pretty good that I’ve got five hives that are still alive. And while that number will probably drop to three or four by the beginning of March, that’s still a way better start than last year.
A film about beekeeping and CCD called The Beekeeper is screening at the Sundance Film Festival this week. The filmmaker, Richard Robinson, bills it as “An experimental documentary exploring CCD,” which means it could either be really hokey or really interesting. The trailer on Robinson’s site would suggest the latter.