Archive for February, 2012

February Sunshine

by Ginny. 0 Comments

Life in all 4 hives in februaryLow 50s again today. Activity in all the hives! #1 The Black Rock hive is by far the busiest, (the one with the dark, small bees, originally split from The Others and killed 2 commercial queens. Their natural bred queen came from Oceanic815 in June 2011 – an after-swarm queen cell I moved over, or from the secondary swarm I combined with ‘The Black Rock’ a few weeks later) and seems to have had the fewest dead bees on the bottom board screen and landing board. #2 ‘The Others’ is the quietest, and judging by the evidence on the bottom board, the colony is very small. #3 Oceanic815 (New 4lb package hive from 2011)  and #4 (815’s June 2011 swarm) have had the highest number of dead bees at the entrance and on the bottom board screen.

Heather with insect gathering pollen or nectar

I saw a few bees bringing in pollen today. I wonder what they are finding. My heather is starting to bloom, but that’s not a honey bee on it.

Don’t know what that is, I’ll have to look it up.

Lots of activity in the hives on a warm February day