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.

Inspection cameos

Here I am in my bee veil - Linda the Beekeeper!
Becky, my daughter, is the photographer for the last four posts. She took this picture of her as she watched me put Destin back together in the inspection. (She came inside because the bees seemed a trifle too interested in her for her comfort!)
This is Henry, one of my two black Pomeranians. Henry is relegated to watching the inspection from the inside of the sunporch because his sister, Haley, was stung pretty badly and I didn't want that to happen to either dog again. Henry sits and watches me through the door while I work on the bees.