Oct 14
Panic set in, not sure if it was because today i turned 60 or whether it is the cold and wintery day. But i felt the urgency to get the bees put to bed. This year it involved more work than usual. The reason for that is, there is a chance the motel could be sold and we will get to go home mid winter. So we had to think about that when wrapping. If we were to move, the bees would have to be picked up and placed in our truck and taken almost 100km away. So we wanted to strap the boxes together so they wouldn't separate while moving them. James cut long strips of plywood that would be screwed from the top box to the bottom box, we put them on all 4 sides of each hive. Then we had to consider, what if there is ice and the pallet is froze to the ground and we cant pick it up. So we placed another pallet on top of the existing one. Then we set out to slowly move one hive at a time, up a ramp on to the top pallet. It worked really good and was way easier than we thought. The odd bee stuck its head out to see what we were doing, but all and all, they were pretty laid back.
Once the 2 hives were side by side on the pallet, we wrapped them up. So each hive this winter, have one deep super full of honey, whatever they had in the brood box for honey and a 8lb candy board. So all going well, that will keep them happy for the winter.
Oct 20
Beautiful mild day. The bees have been busy dragging out all the dead summer bees. Lots were out flying around too.
Oct 21
Winter has returned.
Hang in there bees...spring is only 5 months away.
