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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snow and Bees

On Sunday night Atlanta looked more like Minnesota. The snow fell steadily all night. The beehives on my deck are unoccupied, but look at them in the snow!

Hannah, my dog, wanted to check them out around 9:30 PM.



I visited Blue Heron on Sunday morning and put a heavy log on top of each of the three hives there to point out to the "marauder" who probably, I hate to say it, was human, that these tops aren't to be removed. I even put a log on Julia's hive that has no bees in it to emphasize my point.



The first thing Hannah did in the snow was to dig up her favorite toy from under the layers of ice and snow. Neither Henry (the black pom) nor Hannah really understood what to do with this mess.



Here's how the hives looked when the snow stopped.



Today (Tuesday) we are iced over. The snow is hard ice and the street in front of my house has a 2 inch layer of ice before you reach the pavement. Atlanta is relatively paralyzed. The buses aren't even running today.

So what's happening in the beehive when there are bees in the hive during a harsh winter?  They are trying to maintain homeostasis.....see next post.
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2 comments:

  1. Jim from Jupiter1:05 PM

    Good to see you have hives back on your deck. I hope you install two packages come spring.

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  2. I never move hives when they die - often a swarm will move in in the spring because the hive smells right and has been occupied before - the empty hive provides its own swarm lure!

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