| Following The WebWitch's Garden Hive - 2011 |
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| The continuing story of the adventures of a city kid into beekeeping and gardening - |
Wow! I have neglected this
page shamefully last year! I
will try to do much MUCH
better this year on it -
the WebWitch
page shamefully last year! I
will try to do much MUCH
better this year on it -
the WebWitch
Christmas of 2010
brought 5" of snow to
me and my bees. I
ended up raising the
bottom wire of the
electric fence to keep
it from getting buried
in the snow! You can
see how it is clinging
to the wires here.
brought 5" of snow to
me and my bees. I
ended up raising the
bottom wire of the
electric fence to keep
it from getting buried
in the snow! You can
see how it is clinging
to the wires here.
My friends Deb and Mike came over on 4 January and helped me check the food
supplies on my hives (7 double brood chamber hives and one single brood chamber in
the big apiary and this little apiary by my little garden.) This is the first time we have
tried to overwinter nucs up here on the mountain, so far so good. Both of these
nucs had filled their second brood chambers with honey last year, so they started
out with new, young queens, a goodly amount of bees to cluster, and plenty of food.
They are just coming up into the top brood chambers and looked to have nice little
clusters. The nuc at the right side of the picture is on a scale - they started out
with 94 pounds the week before Thanksgiving when we put them to bed for winter.
Tuesday they were at 89 pounds. This is total weight of bees, boxes, stores. They
have been flying well on the warm days (50's) which we have had a few. There is
another big snowstorm coming this weekend they tell us, we will see what happens...
supplies on my hives (7 double brood chamber hives and one single brood chamber in
the big apiary and this little apiary by my little garden.) This is the first time we have
tried to overwinter nucs up here on the mountain, so far so good. Both of these
nucs had filled their second brood chambers with honey last year, so they started
out with new, young queens, a goodly amount of bees to cluster, and plenty of food.
They are just coming up into the top brood chambers and looked to have nice little
clusters. The nuc at the right side of the picture is on a scale - they started out
with 94 pounds the week before Thanksgiving when we put them to bed for winter.
Tuesday they were at 89 pounds. This is total weight of bees, boxes, stores. They
have been flying well on the warm days (50's) which we have had a few. There is
another big snowstorm coming this weekend they tell us, we will see what happens...
This picture is just
before Thanksgiving,
quite a contrast to the
second one, taken at
Christmas!
before Thanksgiving,
quite a contrast to the
second one, taken at
Christmas!