A Spring Day

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It's a tease, I know that. Soon the polar vortex will swoop down and give us the coldest temperatures of the winter. I think this will be it, Old Man Winter's last hurrah, but also know better than to get too cocky. More schizophrenic than that crazy Aunt with all the cats, we are going to go from 61° and sunny to 35° with snow and rain this weekend. It looks like we are not going to get the once forecasted low of 12° that was predicted not so long ago. Now it looks like we will bottom out in the twenties for a couple of nights. Nothing these bees can't handle.

It was nice enough to take a peak. We wanted to make sure the gals had enough sugar brick left to hole up for the next couple of weeks, and I'll do my best to leave them bee. We even took the opportunity to dig into one of the stronger hives. They had eaten a good portion of their sugar brick, so we could manipulate frames without making too much of a mess. We found the queen navigating a frame of brood. She had a couple of nice patches of capped, some larva that looked nice and white and moist, as well as a full side of a frame laid up with eggs. So it's officially started... Come on warm weather!

We’ve got some stuff to do yet:
  • A better numbering scheme. Not happy with the stand positions being numbered. Every time we move a hive it makes a mess of the notetaking organization.

  • Finish up some woodenware and get it painted or dipped. Specifically, the lids that accept the feeder jar directly. There are still a few holes to pop.

  • Alcohol wash, to get a mite baseline. I really want this to be zero, treating mite before the flow looks to be a PITA. I’d like to keep with this schedule:

    • Early July – Break brood cycle (re-queen). OTS split coupled with an OAV treatment.

    • Late August - Apivar Strips

    • Early December & Early January – OAV while the hive should be broodless.

If things get in front of us as far as swarming or mite counts in Early Spring we have a couple of options. Both avenues are different variations of a split and done slick enough allows for a brood break to kill the will-be phoretic bastards.

Shopping (It’s on the agenda too):
  • (50) Deep Frames
  • (30) Medium Frames
  • (1) 8F Ross Round Setup
  • (1) 8F Queen Excluder
  • (6) 8F Imrie Shims
  • 2oz honey bottles
  • Drone frames
  • Pollen Patties
  • Freemen Traps


Location: Colfax, NC, USA

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