Nice weather!

The bees survived the brief snow and are now happy and healthy on this sunny day(the first in quite a while.) They've been busy collecting pollen. Since there are very few flowers yet we suspect they are perhaps utilizing the willow tree, though we have not actually seen any bees over there. A small scattering of local flowers will hopefully spread enough to provide the bees with something more soon.

April 19th snow

This is the hive built by Mr. Kendhammer, thicker than the other purchased hives. When the lid is lifted it feels warmer than the other two hives. Old rugs and blankets draped over the other two to give more warmth and prevent the opening from being blocked by snow/sleet. Bee have a supply of sugar water, last years honey and bee cake. Although they do not use the glass feeders becasue the solution is probably cold.

The New Hives

The queens arrived and were put into the three hives that we set up for them. Each of the hives has at least two frames of honey on the bottom. The jars on the front are full of sugar water. Since the flowers are not quite around yet we put artificial food in top for them to eat. The tin can is also full of sugar water.

Clean Up

In preparation for the new bees we had to scrape out the old frames. A few of them that were still pretty clean and full of honey we kept for the new hives. All of the boxes and frames were cleaned with UV light.

We will keep some of the honey for ourselves, but first we'll check to make sure it's edible.

last of the winter

The bees died, all frozen, bodies tested (AOAC or BAM), in two 20 bee lots. Results cfu per BEE: total coliform : 50; Strep. species: <4; Staph. species/S. aureus : <4/<4; Listeria species: negative per 20 bees; Paenibacillus species: <2; Salmonella species: negative per 20 bees; APC (SMA 24/48 hr 32'C): 1500/63,000; molds/yeast: 1,100/1.9 million; A dilution of 1 bee:10 mL buffered water gave a strong positive on a standard bio assay (B. sterothermophilus) for antibacterial antibiotics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------