I’m not so sure my bees have made it to this point of the year. It’s so cold that I wouldn’t dare even peek inside. Not even into the feeder shim. A couple of weeks ago, the bees had not made it to that part of the hive, which might have been either good or bad. Given the lack of any activity at all, including dead bees outside of the hive, I’m guessing it’s the latter. It’s actually sad.
The bees were treated spring and fall for varroa. I fed them in the fall (they didn’t take much), and wrapped the hive for winter. I’m pretty sure that either I bumbled something anyway, or the temps got to the bees. Which would be bad, because we certainly can see much lower temps. While thinking it’s the worst, I’m treating it as though that’s not the case, until I can confirm it. Minnesota’s winter temps mean that could be a while.
If my bees are there in the spring, they’ll be getting transferred back into a Warre style hive. If not, there will be a spare hive, and a lot of luck could see it draw a local swarm.
Two of the Warre hives I just completed are for the Saskatraz bees I’ll be picking up this spring. The paint on those hives has had plenty of time to dry already. I finished putting pins in for top bars today.
Yes, the roofs look like they belong in an Easter basket. Yes, I realize this is more for people than for bees.
Now comes the not-fun part of the project: cleaning all the nooks and crannies of sawdust.
While I dust and vacuum behind everything, I can further plan for a successful overwintering next time. Hopefully it will help, in some small way, to give the bees the types of hives that don’t require or facilitate frequent disruptions to their activities or to the inner climate.
Any old Warre boxes, the ones made with butt joints, Gorilla glue and no primer, will be used as veggie/flower planters and maybe stackable potato grow boxes.
