Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: blueblood on December 06, 2013, 04:13:16 pm
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Drove back to the bee yard to check on the hives since the first significant winter storm of 2013 is under way. Cleaned the snow from the entrances. I am sure they were staying toasty warm in there, drinking warm honey and talking about the 2014 season. ;)
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Why do you remove their wind block? Snow is porous and will let air in, but keep wind out. I don't imagine the bees have any desire to come out before the snow melts enough for them to get through. Maybe you can explain it, but I've never understand why any keep would remove snow from the entrances.
PS. You might want to reduce your pics a bit before loading them. :shock: :lol:
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Good point Iddee, but ya never know in Indiana. It was 60 degrees Wednesday, ha! I just want the bees to have a better chance of getting out if they need to and I was concerned about ventilation. I am glad I did clean the snow off the hives with the 3/8" holes. There were dead bees plugging them up. I made those entrance reducers very quickly a couple of weeks ago and probably should have made the holes bigger.
On the pics, I assumed the attachment system would create thumbnails. I was surprised by the big pics too.
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With a beginner admin like me, there will be many adjustments to be made. Just keep posting and we will find most of them eventually.
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Sure thing Iddee. Thanks for the wisdom on snow on the hives. I will reconsider my practices on that one for sure.
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Iddee, went back out to the yard today. You will be happy to learn, all the entrances have been re-covered with snow. And, I just left them be. :D
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If you are worried, when the temp goes above 50, go out and give them a 1 in. opening, if they don't have one. Until then, they are fine.
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LOL.. same here in Iowa Blueblood.. went from mid 60's to around 10 degrees for five days, then it went to the 50's for about 3 days, and its supposed to be 2 degrees tonight, was 0 when I got up this morning.. we missed the snow you got thankfully, but I hear its supposed to get us tomorrow. :(
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We were suppose to get 1-2 inches of the nasty white stuff. Missed us completely! Yee Haw!
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I remove the snow to prevent water from backing up into the entrance. The snow melts a bit then refreezes in front of the entrance creating a dam.
Ed
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Hard ice, I agree completely. Soft snow, I would leave.
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This is something you don't see in Texas very often, but when it does happen, we are at a standstill. I'm really anxious about checking on them. I have seen several bees scattered on the snow. They don't have enough food to take them through the entire winter and I fed them quite a bit last week when the temps were warm.
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Several bees scattered in the snow is my favorite thing to see this time of year :D
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Here's a couple of mine. No warm weather in our forecast yet.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi202.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faa304%2F79petra%2FFord%2520tractor%2520stuff%2FGarden%2FHoney%2520Bees%2FSNOW005_zps03dc8be8.jpg&hash=0d912e5c23b15534ee0818a327b9d1aa37c0c222) (http://s202.photobucket.com/user/79petra/media/Ford%20tractor%20stuff/Garden/Honey%20Bees/SNOW005_zps03dc8be8.jpg.html)
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nice SNOW PICTURES........ :D :D :D
ps. no warm weather in our forecast yet either!
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You mean you guys can see your bee hives? :laugh: