The bees have been flying

We had a freakishly warm weekend and the girls took the opportunity to stretch their wings.  On Friday, it barely made it into the 50s (F) and they were already active.  Saturday it made it to 60 and Sunday it made it to 70.

I also took the opportunity to check on their stores.  I had put a few pounds of fondant in the hive this fall and they had been making their way through it.  I went ahead and put a couple more pounds in there for insurance.

The cluster seems to still be pretty healthy.  Through my observation window, I can see that the cluster is between four rows of comb, but I can't see how far into the row the cluster goes. Hopefully, I don't get an awful surprise down the road, and they are just on the edge of the comb.

Cold outside, but warm inside

It's winter now in Maryland, by the weather, not by the calendar, and the bees are doing okay so far.  A couple weeks ago we had a few nights where the temperature was down in the teens, much like tonight, but then the wind was blowing at about 30 miles per hour.

One of my favorite features of my top bar hive is my observation window.  After the cold spell around Thanksgiving, I took a peek through the window and noted that there were a few dozen bees on the screen at the bottom of the hive.  They may have been from the cold spell, but from what I hear, several of the bees die off around December so the colony doesn't need to use as much of the food stores.

Whatever the reason, after it warmed up above 55 F the other bees cleaned up the hive and went back to their business.  Looking through the window, the cluster doesn't seem really big, but it spans about four or five bars of comb.  Considering that the top bars are about 18 inches long at the top and the comb is probably 8 to 10 inches wide at the bottom, that is still a lot of bees.

I had added about 4 pounds of fondant to the hive, just in case.  There is still about 2 and half pounds of fondant left.  I just leaned the fondant cakes between the side of the hive and the comb on either side next to the cluster.  I also moved the hive about 10 feet so that the house would block the North wind.  Hopefully, the next sunny day will make it warm enough in the hive for the bees to get to the fondant.  The hive is painted dark green, so that should absorb some heat too.

Some people have wondered whether screened bottom boards would not provide enough insulation for the bees.  I did have a few bees die, and that may have been from the cold, but as a whole, it didn't seem to affect the colony very much.  To me, it seems to be worth using the screened bottom board to help with the varroa mite problem.

I'll let you know again this weekend how the bees are doing.  It didn't get above freezing today, but this weekend it should be a little warmer.  I'll take a peek at the bees then.