Just Warm Enough…
Today was just warm enough that the bees were flying.
Seems there is always at least one warm week in January, here in the Olympia area, giving the honey bees a chance to get out and make cleansing flights (honey bees do not hibernate, and do not defecate in their hives, the warm weeks in the middle on winter give them opportunity to get out and empty their bowels. Makes for health bees, not having to pinch it in too long). These warm weeks in this part of the country are the same weeks that the Alders and the Hazelnuts bloom, (catkins, I’ll try and get out this week and shoots some photos of these flowers for you all, we’ll see if that happens) this too is a great boon for the honey bees, giving them a much needed supply of pollen, a protein source for brood rearing in the coming spring.
Checked the weight of the hives in my backyard, found two of them a little light, fed them some honey from last falls honey harvest, and decided that I should head out to the Farm and check on the hives there as well.
The bees at the Farm were not one bit happy to see me. Had to suit up before I even got close to them. (I move all the pissy hives out to the Farm where they are less likely to cause trouble for me; I don’t think the neighbors would be happy if they were getting stung often, or at all for that matter).
They were doing good out there. One hive dead, I think it may have been that way going in to winter… the mice had moved in and so I left it. Maybe that is why I left it there in the fall, a mouse gimmie, otherwise the mice would move in to the active hives… much more of a hassle cleaning mouse nests out of active hives in the spring.
…so I left it again. The mice will have a dry home until spring, then I’ll give’m the boot.
Tags: Catkins, honey bees, the Farm