Suicide in the snow

[beeno]

Hi CB008,
Thanks for setting the alarm bells ringing. That would have been a shock for the uninitiated.

 

[Little John]

Hi littel john . What type of hive have you got.And what sitting on top of the brood boxes

The box on the left is a National deep, with a modified crown board over, drilled to take up to 4 inverted jar feeders. There are currently 2 jars in place over the brood combs: one with damp sugar in, the other candy. There's a super on top of the modded crown board - which is just acting as a box to hold the jars and insulation.



The box on the right is an experimental Deep Long Hive, designed to take any size of frame (up to 14x12's) or plain Top Bars - the idea being to use this as an apiary tool enabling combs to be moved back-and-forth from Top Bar Hives to any National-based framed hive.

On the top left of the main box is an adapter frame which is necessary when mixing Frames and plain Top Bars together. On top of that is another super, housing jars and insulation as before.

What you can't see ('cause it's inside) is a moveable partition board, which currently separates the Long Hive into an 11-frame 'deep' to the left and a 6-frame NUC (unused right now) to the right. To save buggering about with different size roofs, I quickly made a '6-frame NUC super' which you can see is about 3/4" too tall, which is why the roof is slanting ! (My excuse is that there's always a Mk.I)

Future designs based on this Long Hive will be limited to 9" deep, and will have 3 x 6.5-frame NUCs/Deep Supers over - rather like the Dartington concept. The idea being to only have one size of frame on site.

Cheers
LJ

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
Snowing another 5cm here tonight and on Saturday it's going to be 6C so I would expect the bees to come out after being cooped up for two weeks. Should I try to clear the snow around the hives? Could thaw the snow with some tepid water to expose some bare ground. Would that help and how much ground should I clear?

 

[Finman]

Hi all,
Snowing another 5cm here tonight and on Saturday it's going to be 6C so I would expect the bees to come out after being cooped up for two weeks.

Should I try?

Let them be in peace. You can only disturb them.

 

[Swarm]

 

[Birdsnbees]

Bees Frozen in the snow, Cheshire

Hi, just been on a rescue mission, 70 plus bees lying on top of the snow all around the hive. Bees were very active today just in this one hive, most returning to the hive after cleaning themselves. just before dark, I picked the motionless bees up, brought them into the house, next to the fire, muslin over the container, they all revived, sprinked some sugar over them and returned them to the top of the brood frames next to the fondant which was about half eaten. This hive entrance temperature in todays sun was 48 deg F Other hives with no activity temp was 40-42 deg F. Should I have shaded the hive from the diect sunlight. ?? It is a small colony anyway.

 

[beeno]

Hi birdsnbees, Swarm and Finman and All,
I am sure all the experienced beeks would say no to shading. However, had the same scenario here, but only about ca 40 bees in a torpid state. Brought them in and put them in front of their own hives in batches after 'thawing'. Most scurried in the entrance so all in all a good day. Nice to see them out after they have clustered for approx. two whole weeks. Be nice to see some pollen going in tomorrow if it does not rain all day +10C.

 

[Birdsnbees]

Hi beeno,
Hopefully the snow will be gone tommorow and things will start to warm up, Not much chance of pollen yet around us, 1 Mahonia bush in flower, snow drops still not up yet, Greenhouse peaches not even in bud yet, a bit concerned that they may do a suicide run again tommorow I may not be around to hoover them up again.

 

[Finman]

Hi birdsnbees, Swarm and Finman and All,
I am sure all the experienced beeks would say no to shading.

. Be nice to see some pollen going in tomorrow if it does not rain all day +10C.

Yes, you bee problem is quickly away...

Your next problem will be how to make 1:1 syrup

and next: I saw 5 bees in syrup. What to do!!!

.

 

[Winker]

and next: I saw 5 bees in syrup. What to do!!!

.

Throw them a wheato each they can use them as life support

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

I have 18 inches of snow in my garden not seen a bee for weeks. The landing strip(alighting board) is covered in snow which is banked up against the entrance. I am reluctant to move it, but it is now raining I can hear it on the Velux windows, as it will be sheltering the hive entrance from the biting winds that we have here. I noticed earlier that the snow on the hive roof had almost gone. I am hoping that the temperature in the hive is stable under the four inch quilt I made. Last time I checked they were on the super and the fondant had not been touched.

 

[beeno]

I have 18 inches of snow in my garden not seen a bee for weeks. The landing strip(alighting board) is covered in snow which is banked up against the entrance. I am reluctant to move it, but it is now raining I can hear it on the Velux windows, as it will be sheltering the hive entrance from the biting winds that we have here. I noticed earlier that the snow on the hive roof had almost gone. I am hoping that the temperature in the hive is stable under the four inch quilt I made. Last time I checked they were on the super and the fondant had not been touched.

Dear Margaret Elisabeth,
I share your Angst, but I am far to inexperienced to advise. Hopefully, a more experienced beek will be along in a minute!

 

[beeno]

Yes, you bee problem is quickly away...

Your next problem will be how to make 1:1 syrup

and next: I saw 5 bees in syrup. What to do!!!

.

Hi Finman,
I am a little bit disappointed in you. I do not think for a moment that 'I am home and dry'. I certainly, know how to make 1:1 syrup and that there are 100+ bees killed in syrup feeders over the year. You can treat me as a two hive beek if you like, but I do have 4 colonies. However, that does not mean that I don't have the same problems as everyone else.

 

[Birdsnbees]

Throw them a wheato each they can use them as life support

Hi, I had a similar problem earlier in the winter, the fondant in 1 hive started melting, glued up dead bees dropped to the bottom of the hive. Same fondant in other hives all Ok. I put it down to different temperature & humidity of this 1 hive, any other ideas, I fixed it by scooping up the gooy fondant from the top of the frames and put it on a plastic plate.
Its been too cold to open the hive & check whether they have found it.