This afternoon's tools of the trade. Inspected the hives. This is the first year both hives have overwintered, and the first year my spare comb has survived wax moth or mold over winter. :) Yahoo! #🐝
Argh! I just watched a male cardinal attacking my beehives! It was pecking at the entrances. I happen to have just bought an owl scarecrow, so I just set it at the hives for now. #🐝
Today I checked the hives for signs of life and didn't find any… 55℉ midday. But late in the day both were flying! I pulled covers and gave them sugar. W hive really touchy, as usual. E hive got pollen substitute, let me work it w/o issue. #🐝
Here you can see the West hive a month ago in good weather, spread out, with 3 boxes. And then both hives, today, in the freezing cold, clustered at the top of their hives. Glad they're both still alive! #🐝
I only got 9 frames of honey off of the two hives this afternoon. I was surprised that the East hive only had one frame filled in... It's just working now on drawing out the rest of the frames. Tried the new camera on the bees. Some varroa mites found. #🐝
Saturday the bees got a hold of some comb from last year that had honey, and the honey had crystalized. I dispersed the bees from it Sunday and tried to get an OK picture of the comb. But doesn't that look like a person? :D #🐝
A friend found bees on their tree, so I helped my father-in-law set up a swarm trap at the foot of it last weekend. I haven't heard back on how it went, though. #🐝
I worked the bees last night. Took the feeder off East hive. West hive successfully merged (no more laying workers!), but still had 3 deeps on it. I moved the bottom to the E hive, inspecting and brushing off all the bees. #🐝
This evening Anna spotted a bumblebee asleep on these flowers in the yard. So cute for them to do this. They'll sleep on a flower when they are tired and too far from home. Swaying in the wind all night. #🐝