We’re far enough north that “official” spring often doesn’t mean much. While the equinox may mean something to the chickens, ususally we’re still shin deep in snow for at least another few weeks. Not this year.
There’s still some snow, in deep spots where the blower piles it up, or in the shade, but early spring is upon us. I can start digging holes, maybe even transplant a few things. We have a lull, between now and when it’s safe to actually garden. I have plenty of projects to fill the lull.
There are raised beds to be built–some out of cedar and some of blocks. There still some dormant spraying to be done (damn winds, though.) It’s still too early to even start seeds indoors. As much as there’s laundry on the line and critters in the fields, a winter storm could still be lurking. Ask Denver.
But there is one bright light to the season so far. The bees. You may recall that we boxed them up and stored them in the barn through the worst of winter. Yesterday, it was time to pull them out and see how we did. At our recent Zoom bee meeting (aren’t we getting fancy) our members reported pretty disastrous winter survival ratings. Even seasoned beekeepers lost hives. It is my fervent belief that a mild winter may be even harder on the bees than a major blow. Cold doesn’t kill bees–moisture does, starvation does, and, I think, roller-caster ups and downs are hard.
So yesterday was the big day. I won’t keep you in suspense. All three hives survived. Within an hour of relocation to their regular digs, they were out and flying. We couldn’t be happier. The hives are light, though, an indication that they’ve eaten their way through their winter stores. Today we’ll feed them. There’s not much out there for forage this early–so they’ll get their honey back. It’s the least we could do.
Of course there’s the matter of ‘insurance.’ Anticipating disaster, I put in an order for bees. This will be the first time that our little apiary on the hill will be operating at full capacity. With possible splits…we may have more than we actually need. We’ve learned a lot and I think we can finally say that we are beekeepers.
tworockchronicles 
That’s good news. It looks like a helping hand with insulation has worked. Although bees can survive cold (as yours have done), I feel there is nothing wrong with giving some reasonable protection. Amelia
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I’d build them a villa, if it’d get them through winter.
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Sweet! Question on feeding them…sounds like you have some un-extracted frames of honey you set aside? How do you do that? Are they in the freezer? I checked ours again yesterday..2 out of the 3 had eaten the dry sugar I’d put on top of newspaper..and the honey I’d observed in the combs 2 weeks ago was mostly gone…I switched gears and put a 1 gallon sugar water feeder in each one….would much prefer giving them honey, but don’t have any…still don’t have 100% of my close up vision after cataract procedure, I was not always sure of what I was looking at. Very excited your girls made it through the winter! I feel your joy. DM
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Before sealing them up for winter, we make sure each hive has at least 70 pounds (10 full medium frames of honey up top.) To that, we add honey and sugar patties, up in the top of the quilt boxes. They had consumed all of the quilt box honey, and were working on the sugar patties. There’s still too much danger of a freeze for liquid feed in an in-hive feeder. (Not that frozen sugar water would be bad, but it does create a potential cold-sink within the hive.) When we crush and strain, to harvest frames, we save the saturated cappings and any honey “sludge.” We have trays that fit into the top of the winter quilt boxes, and we dump the cappings and sludge into those trays. (You can freeze this stuff, or just store it wrapped tight in plastic so the honey doesn’t ferment.) The bees pick through it and reduce it to wax dust. We also have some honey still sealed in combs, in the frame, and we’ll drop that in, once they’ve eaten all the messy stuff. Again, full frames can be frozen or, because they’re fully sealed, just stored in a cool place. Unfortunately, the quilt boxes don’t give us a clear view of what’s below–but by observing what they have left in the “insurance” food, we can make sure they have enough to get to foraging. One of the problems of a warm winter is that they consume more resources.
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Congratulations, beekeeper! 🙂 –Curt
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My sister left her bees out all winter (she’s in Indiana) but with heaters and stuff I don’t understand. She was thrilled both hives survived, proof being the living bees tossed all the dead ones out!
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Yes, we call it housekeeping–and it’s a sure sign that someone is home to taking care of business.
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