A Visit to Beelandia -- 2/16/2010

Locally, the day was sunny, a bit windy, with temperatures in the mid-30s; a pleasant break from the cloudy, snowy and cold weather of the past week. Just the right kind of weather for peeking about the beehives in Beelandia.

As has been usual the last few weeks, I was able to observe activity at the top entrances of three hives: Lib-BEE-taria, Nuc To Be Named Later, and Bee Glad... The fact that the bees are at the top entrance does worry me a bit, as this might indicate they are running out of food. Hopefully, sometime soon, the temperature will rise above forty degrees F and I'll be able to check their food storage and feed some fondant if necessary.

Metpropolis, one of my top bar hives, concerns me as well. There is excessive diarrhea around the hive which may be a sign of a nosema problem. While I did not see any bees active near the entrance of the other top bar hive, Plan Bee..., I did notice other tell-tale signs of an active hive. However, as I mentioned before, this hive may have a "mouse problem". (No allusion to Monty Python here)

Visit to Beelandia on Super Sunday

I took a break from my grading to go out to Beelandia and check on the bees. Today's weather was primarily overcast though the sun occasionally peeked out from behind the clouds. The temperature in Winona was about 27 degrees.

There were bees leaving the top entrances of both Bee Glad... (see photo above) and Nuc to Be Named Later as the bees either went off to die or make a cleansing flight. I did not see any bees flying about Lib-BEE-taria although there were signs of recent activity at the entrance (i.e. newly removed dead bees). Metropolis, our oldest top bar also had bees flying about as well. I did not see any activities around Plan Bee from Outer Space (our newer top bar), at least not of the apis mellifera-kind. I think, however, the hive does have mice. How the bees fair this invasion will be a question for a warmer day!