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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: David Langham <david_langham AT hotmail.com>
  • To: Lewis Cabel <lewis AT hivebody.com>, ocba listserv <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Anyone Take a Peek this Weekend?
  • Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:33:38 -0500

I took a peek.  Some clusters were very small but I did see some pollen coming in and on the smallest cluster, which was very, very small, I saw some the queen and some eggs!  Plenty of honey all around but I refilled the feeders anyway and even though I saw them bringing in pollen, started with extra pollen substitute to give them a little boost.  Yes, it is time for a longer break in the cold weather.
-David
 
> From: lewis AT hivebody.com
> To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:00:09 -0500
> Subject: [ocba] Anyone Take a Peek this Weekend?
>
> I rolled around on Saturday and Sunday to try to get a feel for how
> the bees were holding up. I tried to over winter some nucs on
> screened bottom boards this year and was curious to see how they were
> doing. So far so good, but I would feel much better if we had some
> warm weather and some red maples coming on. A few of the clusters are
> dangerously small. So far I have lost 3 out of 41 nucs and I expect a
> couple more will perish if the weather doesn't turn soon. Not all of
> the nucs are on screened bottom boards. I have also lost 2 of 10
> colonies that were wintering in 10 frame hive bodies. One was a
> single deep, the other was a deep and a medium. I also have another
> single deep that I moved to a nuc yesterday to try to salvage. Very
> small cluster. Plenty of food, but not enough bees. This hive
> swarmed very late in the season last year so no surprises there. The
> two full size colonies that I lost were not monitored or treated for
> mites in the fall. I believe one of them probably cast a late swarm
> and I suspect the other one was a victim of the mites. Hard to say.
> All in all I'd say things are going as expected. I have also had
> mouse problems this year so I'll be more vigilant about using reducers
> in the future.
>
> Some warm weather would ease my worried mind. My nucs were probably
> adequately prepared for a normal winter where we would see the red
> maples offering a bit of pollen in early February. At this point, I
> am concerned that the small clusters in the nucs are going to have a
> hard time ramping up when the weather does decide to cooperate. I'm
> not too concerned about my 10 frame stuff that I monitored and treated
> as needed in the fall.
>
> Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and take what comes.
>
> What are you folks seeing so far?
>
> Lewis
>
>
>
>
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