You can see in the picture that I still have the extra super on the hives. It simply encloses some (now empty) sugar syrup feeding jars. Now that the weather is cold, the bees stop taking the syrup, so I'll remove them. I still want to put a piece of foam insulation in between the top cover (the metal cover) and the inner cover. I also want to slope the hives a little more so that condensation runs to the edge - I'm not satisfied with the slant yet.
My wife mentioned a week or so ago that she went out and could hear lots of buzzing at the green hive, but almost nothing at the brown hive. Maybe the brown hive won't make it over the winter - we'll see.
We're expecting our first snow storm tonight. I guess it has to happen eventually.
ReplyDeleteI am in my first year with 2 hives as well. One hive is considerably weeker than the other. Now, after a week of -20 degree weather out here in Wyoming the week hive always has a small pile of dead bees being deposited in front of the hive. I hope hse makes it and hope yours does as well.
ReplyDeleteI checked both hives yesterday. Green hive had lots of buzzing, and bees at the top of the cover. Brown hive had no sound, and no bees. I think the brown hive is dead...
ReplyDeleteNext season I'll split the green to make a new brown!
Steven, don't give up on the brown hive, yet. The bees may be clustered deep within the brood box. I had a similar experience. Check out my post from yesterday.
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