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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: David Langham <david_langham AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <soggydollarbar AT hotmail.com>, Lewis Cabel <lewis AT hivebody.com>, ocba listserv <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Anyone Take a Peek this Weekend?
  • Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:43:34 -0500

Jane,
If you have any concerns about your hive being alive, you can put your ear up to the side of the box and lightly knock once or twice on the hive.   The sound of the bees will rise and then lower depending on how hard you knock (don't knock so hard that you upset them).  This is something I do every once in a while during the winter, regardless of the temp.  Also, be sure to lift the hive to gauge if they need feeding.  If it is light then you should open it up to install a feeder on the first day that it is in the 50s.
That is what I do, others may do things differently,
David
 

From: soggydollarbar AT hotmail.com
To: lewis AT hivebody.com; ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:58:30 -0500
Subject: Re: [ocba] Anyone Take a Peek this Weekend?

how warm should it be to take a look.... I thought about it last weekend as one hive is very quiet.... but it was shady there so maybe they were colder... wishful thinking....spring, please hurry up...

Jane Flannelly
Hillsborough,North Carolina
 
soggydollarbar AT hotmail.com




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> 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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