Top shot taken at about noon. Bottom shot taken at about 3. This tells me that the colony is still alive. If they are still cleaning house by dragging out bodies that's got to be a good sign (right?). But I think the big question is the size of the colony by April.
I think the hive had 30,000, maybe 40,000 bees in the fall. If babies are being born to replace the bees that die of natural causes over the winter, and if the total population is high (over 20,000?) in April, I think that would be called a success. But it's a long time until April, and I don't know if baby bees are being born. Or if the Queen is laying eggs, or is even still alive. If she did die in the winter, I don't think the bees would necessarily swarm (or abandon the hive) in search of a new Queen, but I guess it could happen. And I don't know how much honey is remaining. It's so much about the food, I gather. Winter losses are often about starvation.
I've got to find that mental place in beekeeping where you do what you can but then you stop speculating on what may or may not be going on inside that hive.
Sunny tomorrow with a high of 55! They'll be out for sure, "cleansing" and undertaking.
2 comments:
It was 60 here today and there was a big cloud of bees orienting themselves in front of the hive. They are starting to ramp up brood production so they can hit the ground running, as it were.
If your queen were to die (I don't know why she would), the workers would make a new queen or they would all die. They won't swarm without a queen.
FFO
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