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Emerging from the Winter Depths
9/17/2009 6:25:36 PM
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Emerging from the Winter DepthsUpdated: 3/6/10
It's been a tough winter for all of us, but especially hard on the bees. With so many concurrent days with low temps, the bees aren't able to break cluster and leave the hive to take their cleansing flights. Normally, the bees go into cluster around 45 degrees or so, meaning they make a big ball of bees in the hive box. They change position in the cluster, inside and outside, flexing their muscles and creating heat. Bees do not defecate inside the hive if they can help it, so they will take advantage of the occasional warm day to relieve themselves outside the hive. We saw several making their flights in lower temps than normal. When you gotta go, you gotta go, I guess. This winter we took steps to improve on last years terrible winter losses. We placed the hives together on pallets (as opposed to leaving them on individual hive stands). We wrapped some with roofing felt to see if that improves survivability (black paper to catch any sun and add heat to the hives). We also made sure to add upper entrances to each hive. Over the winter, many bees simply die and their bodies block the normal entrance/exit at the bottom of the hive. Upper exits allow the bees a way to get in and out of the hive in case the normal route is blocked. We went into winter with 14 hives. I know at least 2 have died (those on the leading edge that pointed into the prevailing winds. Next year we'll add hay bales around the pallets to block the wind. Not sure how many will make it into April, but we'll see. We still continue to get good reviews of our honey. Some was even given away as a door prize at an event in Arizona. The folks that let us put some bees on their land took some honey down with them this winter and donated it. We got a nice thank you note from the person who won the bottle. It's always nice to hear that the hard work our girls do (the bees, that is) is appreciated. We're planning on updating the website soon with a little different structure. We want to enhance the blog section to begin going into more detail about our concerns with food safety and the unpublished issues that stem from industrialization of our agriculture. It's somewhat depressing and has no easy solutions, but it is a real issue that must be faced. More on that when we get the site enhanced. We hope everyone that reads this made it through this last winter unscathed and that you're as ready as we are for Spring to arrive in full force. |
| 1 items total |
| Bees / Honey |  |
| September, 2009 | |
| Iowa Organic Farms, LLC |