2 Feb @4:00pm EST 60 degrees expected to get colder

Ok did a quick inspection of all four hives. Big shout out to Zachary who helped with pictures.

Grass still dormant and ground very wet behind the hives where I stood....all torn up. The inspection was to simply see if there were any dead outs. We aren't out of winter by any stretch but we had three days of warmish weather  and I was happy to see after two weeks of severe cold single digits that the bees took the opportunity to find (honey) not above them but on the side frames of the hives.

This makes me wonder as a bee keeper if I need to situate all the honey and pollen above the cluster in the late fall. Most bee keepers do that to keep the honey warm and while it makes sense to us humans it probably confuses the bees. I am imagining I just don't know. Then too it is warm and they have a chance to spread out.

Hive #1 in the apiary is the one that has me most worried but the bees were very active and on the honey and pollen from the summer. It is a two deep configuration and not all frames were built out. The bees were on the top deep on the left where the honey/pollen was stored. The bees were calm and wasted no energy on me while I inspected I placed a feeder on top with 1.75 :1 syrup. These are Italians and I didn't dive into the bottom box at all but for all hives I will look at reversing the boxes. I did reduce the entrance on this one  to  give them a chance in the spring and reduce robbing chances.

Hive #2 This is the survivor hive and the genetics seem quite strong. This a three deep configuration plus a honey super medium that had honey in it for extra. I place the queen excluder on it after I was sure she wasn't in there. I gave a bit more syrup but not much. These bees were calm too but still a lot of bees I didn't take any frames out to look at just left everything alone. Then the feeder on top not much syrup.

Hive # 3 also a two deep config. bees calm no defensive behavior. This is a Russian hive and quite well off. I placed a feeder on it and will look to see how they are doing in two weeks. I opened it the bees 'boiled' out  so the bees are doing ok... probably hungry.

Hive #4 Also Russian 3 deep config. The three deep is to prevent swarming this spring. It is an experiment to see what I can do. When I took the inner cover off to see the bees were VERY defensive. I mention this incase I lost the queen two weeks from now I will need to look again at all hives then make decisions on splitting and queen excluders. If the bees are defensive it could mean the queen is gone but then too they could be fine and just want to be left alone.

Ok I have done two things both for me with this hobby of mine.
First for Christmas I purchased a bee jacket that is heavier than my others but well ventilated. The challenge I have with the 4 hives is in the inspections. I perspire at the drop of  a hat... always have and with bees all around you I wear a bandana or hat and inspecting all four hives requires a bit of time. We'll see if the Ultra Breeze Jacket helps. It wasn't a good sign that my bandana was wet at 60 degrees. I like the set up it is airy we'll see what happens I am thinking of not wearing a T-shirt under it and see if I get as hot. It frustrates me with perspiration dripping on my glasses.

 

Any way the second thing I just did was get a logo for Oui Bits Apiary. I'll need to get some labels, and T-shirts and perhaps a coffee mug or two. Let me say that Lotus Designs did a great job and I appreciate all the help since I have no left brain it's all calculations and reasoning (that I can do). So let me know what you think of it... There is already a copyright on it ;-)