I'm sorry you lost some of your bee's I really like the little buzzers around my plants.I hope the rest are ok.
7:51AM 2-23-07 13F, feels like -0F, humidity 55%, Wind NNW @ 11MPH. Cloudy and windy yesterday with scattered snow showers all day with falling temps. Our drive is a ice rink. Today the wind has died down from yesterdays and the sun is shining at the moment. But wait, it can change at any moment as this is Michigan. We have 10 reamining colonies to check which we hope to today. The temp won't get high enought to lift the intercovers off but I can do the knock knock thing and listen for them buzzing inside. We can also place jar feeders over the intercover holes for them. :-D Al
I don't know much about bee keeping, but one year we had a whole swarm on the branch of a tree. It looked to be about the size of a basketball. A friend of ours said that there must be a queen in the middle of it and they were making a new colony. A few hours later they were all gone. It was kind of neat. I assume someone nearby must keep bees.
I am guessing you ment some thing like this? It is a swarm of bees that has left it's old colony. It is natures way of increaseing the colonies of bees. Varroa Mites about wiped out the wild colonies but they are back on the increase I am told. What the cluster is about is bees have clustered about the queen waiting for the scout bees to find a new home. They can stay there a few days or like the one pictured just a few hours. We call this the second chance swarm as I went to get it on a Wednesday and they flew off just after I arrived and was not set up to capture them yet. The next day I got a call from a lady across the road who had found them in her back yard. Some times the scout bees can not find a suitable new home so they build like this. These would never live thru a Michigan winter like this. :-D Al
Yes, it was alot like that! They were on the tip of a tree branch so it looked more like a ball. They stayed there a few hours and were gone. Looked really neat!
8:00AM 2-24-07 13F, feels like 6F, humidity 68%, Wind ENE @ 4MPH. Sunny at the moment but the sky off to the west looks very nasty. Winter storm warnings posted now but the weather people are saying it won't start till tonight. Forecast is calling for rain, freezing rain and 5 to 12 inches of snow which hinges on how much rain there is. Checked the last 10 bee colonies yesterday. Lost one more so our winter loss persentage is at 22% better than last year. I know the fall monsoons we had didn't help. :-D Al
7:59AM 2-25-07 25F, feels like 11F, humidity 70%, Wind E @ 19MPH it's snowing. Yesterday didn't turn out to be to bad of a day with the temp getting into the low 30's. We got the rest of our bees all fed should last about two weeks. We went and looked at a used 72 frame stainless steel extractor too. We will bring it home as soon as the snow melts and the ground drys up some as it is stored across a yard in a shed. :-D Al
Al what's the name of the last plant you posted a piccie of please? It's very pretty and I'd love to see if I can grow some in my garden here in Scotland. :-D
Al by the weather reports you have lots more snow headed your way.I hope its short lived as I sure you've had enough.
eileen, Thats Turtle Head. It is a shade plant. glendann, If we got the snow they had forecast on a couple of TV stations near us we would have about 10 inches just last night alone. A bit of sleet and some freezing mist during the day today is all we got. More snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow, about 4 inches. Bet we get none. :-D Al
Thanks for the name of the plant Al. I'm going to do a web search to find out if I can grow them here. :-D
8:07AM 2-26-07 32F, feels like 25F, humidity 82%, wind SSE @ 5MPH. Only got a lite dusting of snow over night. Appears we were in some type of gap. North of us got lots of snow and today schools are closed. South of us got freezing rain and schools are closed there too. We are getting a lite snow fall right now. From the long range weather forecast we can expect March to arrive like a lion. Also have 3 deer laying across the creek this morning. :-D Al
7:52AM 2-27-07 29F, feels like 29F humidity 82%, wind SW @ 1MPH. had what we call lazy snow all day yesteday, those big easy floaters. since the temp rose to 34F didn't last long once it hit even on the ice. This morning we are getting one of those powder sugar snows, like a misty rain but in snow form. Only 2 deer across the creek this morning. Yes the deer know where to go to get some shelter from the winds, snow and rain. :-D Al
