Happy New Year!

Yes….. 2015 sure went by quickly. My one colony did quite well and went in to winter quite strong.  It’s a large colony so I will have be on the lookout for it to swarm come spring and make a split. I have two empty hives waiting for such an event.  Meanwhile, the bees are hunkered down for the winter and we are having a doozy!  El Nino is living up to it’s name, dropping a lot of snow on us and bringing in frigid temperatures at night. So what do the bees do? They cluster around the queen and vibrate.  This produces heat, much the same way as rubbing your hands together.  This keeps the queen warm and the bees circulate outward bringing in the colder, outermost bees into the center where they warm up.  All this vibrating requires energy, and that’s why they store the honey.  Bees are one of the few insects that can live through the winter as adults, and that’s how they do it. But even all this preparation may not help if the winter is particularly cold and long.  I just have to wait and hope they will make it. Did you know that they will not poop in their hive?  That’s right. They hold it in when it’s cold outside, and when the temperature outside warms up to 45-50 degrees, they will fly out, defecate, and quickly hurry back into the hive!