Hive Talk February 2022

Hive Talk - February 2022

Now that the weather is warmer and the days are getting a little longer I’ve had the question, “How are the bees doing?”

Well, after wrapping them up in October I haven’t had to check on them throughout the winter months, but checked them about 3 weeks ago. That was a day where there was a good amount of snow on the ground and a small opening in the insulation and snow buildup. Zena a I went for a little walk and as we approached the colonies I saw that there were a few girls 'relieving’ themselves. Since then the weather plunged back into a cold snap. Now would be a good time to check on them again as everything is melting and the temperature is slowly rising. If this continues I’ll have to open the hives up and give them a supplemental feed of sugar ‘fondant’. That should tide them over until late March where I’ll feed them pollen patties to help feed the brood, as by then the Queen will start to lay eggs. Or, just leave them until March, as when we wrapped them up for the long winter, the hives had a good store of honey.
I only hope that there were enough bees in each colony to keep the queen warm, and enable them to move around the food stores to survive the winter. After that mite control……I’ll save that for another month.