Cleansing Flights

Heat wave today! It finally got above 40 degrees. We have had a few days approach 40 but never warm enough for the bees to actually get out of the hives. Consequently, I have not been able to see the bees get out for any cleansing flights. I had looked for the little yellow spots in the snow that are evidence of cleansing flights but had not seen those either... until today.

When I noticed that the temperature was climbing I ran out to look at the hives- lo and behold there were actually a few bees getting out and about. I decided to take this opportunity to peek in the hives and see how winter stores were holding out.


I lifted the cover off of Virginia first- here is a photo of the cluster. I did not pull out any frames or move anything around so as not to disturb the cluster too much. As I looked over the hive I found that they have capped honey left on 4 or 5 of the frames. I didn't have time today but I am still going to supplement Virginia with dry sugar. Maybe 4-5 frames of honey will be enough to get them through, but I don't know enough to be sure yet. There is a huge learning curve when it comes to beekeeping- especially this first year.

I didn't bother with the veil and gloves while looking at Virginia. The bees were so calm- not a single bee flew out of the hive. When I lifted the cover off of Georgia, however, about 4 bees shot out. Maybe they wouldn't have bothered me, but I didn't feel like testing the water. How would I explain a bee sting in February? Anyway, I ran back in and donned the veil and gloves before proceeding.

This is what I saw when I finally got in to take a look at Georgia. It doesn't look like they were organized in such a tight cluster as Virginia. It looks like there are just a lot more bees as well. Georgia developed into a nice strong colony last summer while Virginia kind of dwindled at the end, so I am not surprised to see more bees here. I am a little worried about Georgia swarming during her spring build up so I am planning on performing a procedure called "opening the broodnest" as a method of swarm prevention. I think that Georgia is doing just fine as far as honey supplies go. They have moved up to the top deep hive body, but if you click on the picture to get a larger view, you can see that all the frames are still full of honey.

As I said earlier, there were some bees out on their cleansing flights- just a few though. Bees are very hygienic and won't relieve themselves inside the hive. This means that while it is cold outside the bees have to "hold it" until it gets warm enough outside to fly out and "cleanse" their systems. You can always tell when bees have been performing cleansing flights by the little yellow dots of bee pooh in the snow. Here I was able to capture some evidence of their cleansing flights today. After taking off the veil and gloves I found a little yellow spot on top of my helmet where one little bee decided to say "Hello".




In this next picture you can see the bee that followed me in the house. I pinched it in a paper towel to stop my youngest son from freaking out. When I unfolded it I found this yellow stain that had apparently been squeezed out of the bee. I assume it is the material the bee would have shed during its cleansing flight this afternoon. Don't ask me why but I felt compelled to give it a whiff. Maybe it should come as no surprise, but bee pooh does not have a pleasant odor.

On a completely unrelated note, the honey that we harvested last fall has finally started to crystallize. It has not solidified completely, it just looks kind of cloudy with all the little crystals in it. We pulled the supers off last September so it has taken about 5 months for crystallization to begin. I have no idea how that compares to anyone else's honey. I do know that honey from different nectar sources crystallize at different rates. Dandelion and sunflower honey, for example, will crystallize fairly quickly. In any case, crystallization doesn't affect the flavor and our honey is still the best anywhere (in my unbiased opinion that is).

Inside The Hives

It warmed up to a balmy 38 degrees today so I went out to take a peek at the hives this afternoon. There was not a lot of activity but there were a few bees walking around on the front porches. Since it was apparently warm enough for the bees to break cluster a little I decided to peek inside and maybe see about feeding them some supplemental sugar to make sure they could make it through the winter.

Having never opened up the hives in winter before, I didn't know if they would be calm or cranky and if I should gown up or go in bare skinned. I chose to don the hat/veil combo and put on the gloves just to be safe. It turned out that I didn't need to- they were very calm and docile. Not even one bee flew up out of the hives.

As I looked down into Georgia I could hear the bees buzzing in there but couldn't see any without pulling and moving the frames. I didn't want to disturb them too much so I let them be. I guess the cluster was down in the bottom deep hive body. What I did find, to my pleasant surprise, was that all the frames in the top deep were full of capped honey! That really put my mind at ease- I was afraid that I had not fed them enough last fall and they would run out of reserves before spring. I replaced the top cover and moved over to Virginia. Virginia was just as calm but I could see plenty of bees. The cluster had moved up to the center frames of the top deep hive body. I was even more worried about Virginia's stores because she seemed to take less of last fall's sugar syrup, but the 3-4 frames on either side of the cluster were full of capped honey. Let me tell you- that really put my mind at ease. Looks like no mountain camp supplemental feeding will be necessary. I closed up Virginia and went back in much less apprehensive than I had been.

I have one question that I am hoping some of you other beekeepers out there will be able to answer. As I looked down into Virginia I noticed some of the bees looked like they had yellow pollen granules stuck to them. I had noticed the same granules on some of the dead bees outside the hive. It is not on all of them by any means- actually they are on far less than half. Do any of you have any idea what it is and should I be worried?

Let's see- we are now approaching the middle of January. I think it will be time to start spring feeding in a month to a month and a half- sometime in March? I have some pollen patties stored in the freezer- we ordered them to feed the packages when they arrived last April. What I didn't know then but I do know now is that 15 pollen patties will last us several years. I will throw them on the tops of the frames in addition to sugar syrup to give the bees a kick start on spring brood rearing. Hopefully, we will then have two rip-roaring hives going in time for the late spring/early summer nectar flows. I do still want to order a new queen for Virginia- she really slowed down at the end of last summer (even decreased in population a little bit) and her bees got a lot crankier than Georgia's did. I hope that a new queen will calm them down and help them build better numbers.

Winter has been long but the end is in sight! We will soon get to graduate from "Newbie" status and become "Second Year Beekeepers"!