Adding Winter Patties To A Hive

I put winter patties on some colonies today. The weather was perfect to open a hive. Nice and sunny and no wind. A couple colonies were short of food. I could tell these hives were light on stores by all of the bees in the top box.
 Right now the bees should still be in the bottom box. In some colonies I could see the bees down deep between the frames, this is fine. That is a sign of ample food stores.
But, when the bees are covering the frames in the top box, they need food.

Checked hives today

I checked some hives today. I wanted to see a few things. I wintered my colonies with Bee Cozy winter covers. It was a sunny day, around 20 degrees. I wanted to see how warm the center strip of the winter cover would be. Touching the strip with my hand, I could feel the whole center strip was very warm to the touch. It would be very easy for the bees to fly out of their top box hole.

bees doing cleansing flights

A couple hives were short on stores. When I looked under the inner cover there were bees all over the top box. Seeing this in late December is a clue that the hive is short of stores. I did add some winter patties to hopefully get them to February.

Christmas Bird Count

Wendy and I participated in the annual Christmas bird count. You spend the day watching the bird feeders. While there are hundreds of birds that come to our feeders during the day. We count the greatest number at any one time. This gives an idea of general population strength when compared to other years. Plus the number of species that are recorded, to track the population of any one species. There are many bird counters around the metro area and around the entire United States. We report to the northeast metro coordinator.
Our numbers for this year:

5 – Goldfinch
8 – Purple Finch
4 – House Finch
5 – Cardinals
2 – Pileated Woodpeckers
6 – Downy Woodpeckers
2 – Hairy Woodpeckers
1 – Red Bellied Woodpecker
8 – Chickadees
3 – Nuthatch
2 – Red Breasted Nuthatch
3 – Blue Jays
5 – Slate Colored Juncos
3 – Mourning Doves
2 - Crows

Full Moon on Christmas Day

Catch the Buzz Article from Bee Culture - Merry Christmas

Holiday hours

Closed Christmas eve Thursday Dec 24th thru Sunday Dec the 27th.
Next week closed Dec 31st thru Jan 3rd
Wendy and I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays.

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Equipment heading to Texas

I stopped at a commercial beekeepers last week. His truck here is full of empty single hives. He will bring them to Texas soon. He already has moved several truckloads of live bees to Texas already. This empty equipment will be used for splits. He will start a new colony with a frame of bees and gives them a queen cell. He checks for a laying queen after three weeks of putting in the queen cell. If there is a laying queen that's great. No queen, he puts in a new queen cell. The queen that is laying early may have brood taken from it and moved to the later starting colonies to bolster their population. All the hives will be brought back to MN or SD in early May. Hopefully before the dandelions bloom, so the bees can get the free nectar and he won't have to feed the bees as much.

If your counting, and I know you are. I believe there is 800 single hives on this load. They are on pallets. Four hives to a pallet.
Right now they have fed the bees twice since moving them to Texas. Pollen patties will go on in January. The whole crew shows up in late January. It is full time work from the first of February until the bees are shipped back here.
Feeding, making queens, and splits. Making queens and four frame nucs to sell to his many customers. Besides making up 7000 colonies for his own honey production.
Down in east Texas there are beekeepers everywhere. There is a huge market for queen cells and frames of brood. A frame of brood with adhering bees sells for $20.00 a frame.