Well the yellow hive was still today… but ‘life’ unfortunately wasn’t a feature. I went to check the hive seeing as how we have had 4″ of snow. I removed the mouse guard and went to empty the entrance. There were quite a few bees there, even some looking like they had gone outside and then frozen solid.
I thought I would just take the lid off and look through the gap in the crown board at how things were going. As it happened the crown board was stuck to the lid and when I lifted that came up too. What I saw was like a photograph. The bees were frozen in the process of going about their business in the hive. Some in a ball, some outside the ball on other frames. It was quite odd, it was as if I had opened the lid on a game of musical statues and someone had just said freeze.
Given it was about 1C I thought if there was, however unlikely, a few bees left alive in there that I should close the lid and let them get on with it.
Well that is one hive down and two queens… hmm maybe enthusiasm isn’t all you need for beekeeping.
Hi Nick Sorry to hear your bad news, I had a similar experience last year,with one of my two hives. I find it most upsetting, you steal their stores and they die of starvation, and your supposed to be the beekeeper. If its of any interest I vowed this year not to lift the lid unless there was a strong reason, like lack of stores detected by hefting. I have also insulated the sides of my hives with one inch thick with 25mm Kooltherm K8 foil covered insulation board.Maybe I went OTT but we will see, I have also purchased digital thermometers so I can see what the temperature is in the cluster, but can’t install them until next season of course.I was determined to learn some lessons from my disaster. Best of luck,see you at next meeting Tom shaw
Oh no, I didn’t take any stores off them. They still had honey and pollen. I think the ball was not big enough to keep itself warm. I would nor have taken the lid off but for there being so many dead in the entrance. I was thinking of thermometers too, to go with my solar ventilation project so I can check on its effect.