Thursday, January 14, 2010

First Fly Day of 2010

It's been almost a month since the last fly-day. Compared to last Winter when it happened about every week so I've been concerned. Both hives are brewing with warm bees today. At 55 degrees & sunny it's a great day for flying & the all important Cleansing flights. Tomorrow is to be 56 or so but then it's back to being in the 40's. Tomorrow afternoon I'll peek in each hive to measure their reserves. I have 6 deep frames filled with honey & pollen to replace any empty frames.



Myrina
If you're from the north and need a fix just put on your veil and turn up the volume

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Mary was the first one out at Noon. Odd I thought since she's the weaker & smaller of the two. It made me nervous about Myrina's condition.

MARY: A good showing

Yet not an hour later out came Myrina to show Mary how it's done. Of course Myrina does have more bees...

MYRINA: Bring out your dead!


We had one not so cold day 2 weeks ago. It was warm enough for the bees to move around some but not fly, 47 degrees. The ground was covered in snow. All the bees did was to toss out the bees that died. The snow was peppered with dead bees in front of the hive. That plus today makes for a big piles of bees. Hopefully the queens will start laying eggs again soon. I have some pollen substitute ready to go. I'll make patties for them. I plan to start some time before the end of the month. Next week might be warmer than this one has been. So hopefully we'll get more days like today.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good show by your girls! Mine we out today too, not in full force, but out nonetheless. I'm planning to peek inside tomorrow to make sure things are good inside the top chamber (I use two deeps).

By the way, where in Virginia are you? I read that you talked to Mark at Dadant in Chatham, so I assume you're close to me. Please let me know!

immwia said...

As usual a learning experience to drop your blog.

I was not able to enjoy the buzz but I put that off to my dinky laptop that is at least 6 years old.

Hemlock said...

immwia,
You know if you spill coffee on it they have to get you a new one! Right?

Mark,
I had 2 deeps on this hive but her population became too small to support it.
I'm near Lynchburg. Dadant used to be a 20 minute ride when they were in Lynchburg. Now it's over an hour to get there. But I guess that works better for you.

Anonymous said...

Hey Polar! The ride to Dadant is about 45 minutes for me. I could get there sooner, but with a NC license plate, and me in the Commonwealth once I cross the state line, I'm a cop magnet, haha! I don't mind the ride though, fun just to see something different.