OMG--the bees are dead
Or so I thought. It was a cold night last night, and the day took a good long time to hit 40 degrees. I watched the hives closely. We lost one two weeks ago (the queen died late in the season) so I’ve found myself worrying about my girls.
I walked to the hives this afternoon and took a peek under the hood. The hives were all quiet—no buzzing—and not a live bee in sight. Not good. I walked to the front to each of the hives and tapped on the landing board and cleared away the few dead bees that had been carried out of the hive. Back at the house I broke the bad news to my husband.
We decided to take a deeper look in the hives to see what was going on.
Since I was fairly certain there were no live bees, I donned by gloves, but not suit or veil. I pulled off the first layer—a winter feed of pollen and sugar that I rolled out into thin sheets of feed. Then I pulled up the first box.
“Put it back!” my husband cried as a small cloud of bees took off and attacked my head. I quickly replaced the box, the food and the top cover and backed away from the hive.
As it turns out, the bees weren’t dead, but clustered together to keep warm. Most days like today, where the temperatures rise to 40 and there no wind, the bees fly.
I’m relieved that my girls are still doing well in their hives and I hope they make it until spring. I’ve had remarkable luck with the beekeeping, and while I was sad to think my bees may have died, I knew that colony collapse is always a possiblity.
But not today.