Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Honey Bees Flying in March

Yesterday I ventured under the cover of my hives for the first time. My smaller hive has only the two brood boxes on it, so I was particularly concerned that they may had run out of honey. When I went in, they gave me the 'butts up' sign to communicate their crabbiness -- so it's possible. Since they were a bit crotchety in the first place, I didn't do anything more than put a pile of granulated sugar on wax paper on top of the frames. Some people are opposed to such a thing, some people are 'okay with it'. But after a sugar candy (fondant) making failure, it was my only option. I was finally able to make a successful batch (take 4) last night and as soon as the weather behaves, I'll put some in both hives. My larger right hive has a honey super on top, so I expect they are fine, however I gave them a small pile of sugar as well, just in case. The bees in that hive were down lower in the hive and seemed more cheerful. However, it's as if they were all bored. They were all landing on me! Ooooo .... maybe THIS is a flower?! Or, in the absence of flowers, we may as well go over and check this big white thing out ... Both hives had bees flying, but the right hive in particular looked like a summer afternoon of orientation flights! It made me so happy! I nearly teared up. "We made it through the winter!!" By the time I got my video camera outside things had settled down, but I thought I'd share what I saw. So encouraging!

4 comments:

Earth Angel said...

Hi Sandy! My hive made it through the winter, also! Many beekeepers in Utah had hives fail. I am sad to hear that. We had a very cold winter. Anyway, I also had the fondant failures ;( I will try the sugar on the wax paper. Thanks for the idea because my bees are very hungry and we won't have flowers for at least 8 more weeks. We are in the mountains and under snow. Angie

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