Snow was still on the ground today with temperatures only reaching 35F.  It was sunny and calm so some bees took the chance to make cleansing flights in spite of the temperature.  Some unfortunately didn’t make it back to the hive and died in the snow.  The sight of dead bees in the snow around the hive and on the landing board can be worrying to the new beekeeper.  They aren’t suppose to be flying when its near or below freezing, right?

In truth they will take short cleansing flights on calm sunny days even when it’s cold.  It was common to find discolored spots in the snow and a dead bee here and there when I returned from work on a calm sunny day.  Overall it’s a good sign, no bees and it means your hives are dead or missing.  A few dead in the snow means they are alive and functioning normally.  After all, with 10-20,000 bees in a hive over the winter, quite a few will die of natural causes every day.  Normally they will try to leave the hive or will be dragged out once dead (and sometimes even when not quite dead). 

I’m not really sure if Winter is here or not.  So far this year  we’ve had 0 degree weather followed by temperatures in the high 60s.  Then snow, temperatures in the teens and sustained 40-50 mile winds.  Followed by 50′s, thunderstorms and significant flooding.   And it looks like it will be snowing and in the single digits again this weekend.  Feels like we are on a roller coaster.

So how are the bees fairing in all this?  I still find it amazing they are able to cope with all this with no more protection than a drafty wooden box.   I was able to do a quick check when the temperatures hit 67 degrees in January and all 61 hives at the house were flying.  Only one showed signs of trouble, the tell tale marks of dysentery on the front of the hive.  It wasn’t unexpected, that particular hive wasn’t really thriving in the fall.   It’s cluster was far too small when I inspected it and it looks like it froze in the last cold spell since then.   You will always loose a few hives over the winter and I expect that one won’t be the only one.  Still, the hives looks far better than they did last year and I expect losses to be well within the normal range.  But we still have a month and a half until maples will bloom and nearly 2 months until April, so there is still plenty of time to worry.

Frost has been on the ground the past couple of mornings and the trees are turning from green to gold and red.  Not a hard freeze yet, but enough to kill the more delicate plants and some trees have only just started changing color.  At least it looks and feels like the the beginning to middle of October.  By the calendar its November 2nd.

As of just a few days ago, the hives were still bringing in a fair amount of pollen and were collecting propolis from any unoccupied equipment they could get to.  The hives are looking much better than this time last year and most are very heavy with honey.  If anything they may be too heavy and I’ll have to pay special attention to the amount of empty area they have for brood this spring.

I’m hoping this is a good sign for this coming winter and spring.  The hives still are quite populous and busy once it gets warm.  The picture to the right is from 1 1/2 weeks ago, but they were still just as busy mid afternoon today.  It’s a big change from their condition this time last year.

I had the opportunity last weekend to attend the North Central Queen Assembly held in Troy, Ohio.   It was entitled ‘Selecting and Rearing Your Own Queens’, which did make me think the information was going to be rather introductory and basic and that I wouldn’t get all that much out of it.  It’s the downside of beekeeping conventions after a while and you are really into bees, the conventions tend to target those at the beginner level and there just isn’t that much new information for some of us.

But the list of speakers included some very notable people such as Gary Reuter who works with Marla Spivak in Minnesota, Greg Hunt from Purdue University and John Harbo who worked at the USDA Honey bee lab and is responsible for the Harbo syring, SMR/VSH queens and much more.  Not to discount Larry Connor and Jim Tew, both entertaining speakers, and Joe Latshaw whom I blame for my queen rearing obsession.  So I had some high expectations.

It ended up being well worth attending, and if you have any interest in rearing queens (or even just buying a queen) you should be kicking yourself for not attending.  Enough basic information was presenting for the beginner, yet had plenty of good information for us that have been rearing queens for some time.  Even had good information for those just wanting to buy a queen and what they should look for in a breeder.  It was very interesting and very worthwhile.  I sincerely hope they hold it again next year.

It’s hard to believe by looking outside that it’s well into Fall and bee season should basically be over.  But the temperatures are still in the upper 60′s and into the 70′s with no chance of frost yet in the 10 day forecast.  What a huge change from last year with it’s cool wet weather and early frost that virtually eliminated any fall flow from goldenrod or aster.  The bees have been packing away stores and are very heavy for winter, yet the queens are still laying in any available space they can find.  I’m hoping that is a very promising sign for this coming winter and spring.
We have been feeding some of the very late splits that were only a single deep just 6 weeks ago.  Most have taken the syrup quickly and built up population on the pollen flow from goldenrod and aster that we’ll be able to stop feeding before it gets cold.  It’s really been a great finish to a year that started off so poorly.