December Fly Day

December Hives

This is the first fly day this month.  The poor girls have been stuck in their hives since before Thanksgiving.  Today's temp was in the high 40's.  Not to warm but enough for the bees to break cluster & preform hive maintenance.  Cleansing flights and dead bee removal is all i could see.  I'm sure they were all getting into honey cells they couldn't reach before.

"Bring Out your Dead"

Under the entrance of each hive was good sized pile of bees; Winter attrition.  Mary was flying first with a good number of bees.  Myrina came out later with as many bees though.  I used a stick to pull out the dead bees  stuck in the entrances.  Myrina seemed to have more piled behind the reducer.  Can't tell if that is a sign of a problem or not.

Mary's Girls

The Sun coming out helped them the most.  We have a few more sunny days in the forecast so maybe they can fly again tomorrow.

Yellow Snow

As expected there was good sign of cleansing flights.  I say good because it didn't look like Nosema.  No great large stain in front of the hives.  Just tiny individual spots all around the yard.  If it were warmer they could get a little farther from the hives.  Which would be nice.  But its still cool so they're staying close.  Good thing the paint doesn't stain!

Myrina's Bees

I had to open the entrance a little more for Myrina's bees to get all the dead out.  I hope she's not going under.  We will see...

Here is a great detailed shot of a younger bee taking a stroll outside.

Bee on Myrina's hive

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