just an update, i was scheduled for my monthly injections in february for last wednesday afternoon, i had to cancel and reschedule those injections for this wednesday afternoon, so the 19th. i have been a little under the weather for the past 3 weeks, and the docs don't like to give allergy injections when one is running a fever/fighting off a viral infection of some sort.
on another note, all of my hives have made it through our extended subzero temps, and snowy winter. we had to dig a path to get to them, but was very happy with putting my ear to each one of them to hear the sounds of the clusters. one by one, brought my heart great joy, and someone elses....
just goes to show you worry wart beeks(
) just how cold hardy bees really are when they go into winter months pest and disease free, healthy, and healthy cluster, with plenty of stores packed away. these hives really have had little maintenance to them since i developed my allergy, so i am amazed at how they have managed to survive with little or no intervention. my only concern is/was one hive, a swarm hive we caught late in the season last summer, for lack of stores necessary for our climate. last fall it was given extra deep frames of honey, fed sugar syrup, and added sugar to the tops of the frames in the 2nd deep, until i could get a winter patty in there. we were unable to heft the hives as they are frozen to the pallets they are sitting on, and could not pop any lids as the temp was only 10 degrees F.
the other concern about the swarm hive was her queen........and the whereabouts of that queen......
the hives were being readied for winter last fall by mr. rb, frames of honey rearranged, feeding etc. he comes running into where i have extra frames stored and he says to me:
"hmmm i saw your swarm queen, she was very beautiful.oops i hear
WAS.......
"what's this was stuff?" (you know eagle eye, deer in headlight questions to him).
"well, i lifted the inner cover and i saw your swarm queen with a circle of bees around her. i looked at the underneath side of the inner cover like you have shown me before i set it aside and there she was! she WAS very beautiful!" (he was so excited to have spotted this).
i sent him back to look for her beneath the hive.
the story is, upon tilting the cover over the hive to get her back in the hive, she took flight on him. my hives sit on pallets. she landed next to the hive, and then scurried away underneath the cover of the pallet......oops.....he tried to find her, thousands of bees in the air. no cluster found underneath and until dark and the next day.
it was kind of funny watching him down on his hands knees looking for that queen......
i suspected that when we saw no cluster beneath or near the hive, the queen made her way back to the hive safe and sound, but i must say, he has been worrying about this since last fall, and when we listened to that hive this weekend, the question came up, would the hive survive a winter without a queen. my reply to him was that the hive has a queen and all is well.
