End of the year, winter is here, and the bees seem to be faring well. Occasionally a few fly out when the weather is mild with no rain; we are generally in the mid 40's to low 50's F during the daytime which is too cool for them to stir.
The hive is situated on the north side of the house and shaded from the low winter sun. That is a good thing because there is not a great fluctuation of temperature from sun shining on the hive to cause warming alternating with cooling, which leads to additional condensation in the hive. My main concern for overwintering has been condensation; I'm anxious to open the hive during the warmer days of spring to see what happened in that respect.
An industrious spider keeps building a web just above the entrance to the hive, capturing a bee or two every few days. I counter with sweeping the web away but am not always in time to prevent the snagging of bees. Nor does dispatching the resident spider in the attic seem to help; ahh, that's nature.
A skunk periodically visits the hive to feast on the dead bees that fall beneath the hive. I've tried to place a piece of white plastic on the ground below the hive to see the number of dead bees being removed from the hive but each night it is pushed aside. Although I've not seen the skunk itself, there's evidence of its digging in the area for bugs, which is a good thing so I welcome its night foraging...as long as it doesn't decide to live under the deck.
Tried to photograph bees just inside the hive entrance, but the camera lens fogged from the inside heat. Can see a portion of the bees clustering on the comb in their warming ball. No sound can be heard from inside.
I'd like to look at the bottom board to see how many varroa mites there are but this is not the time to open the hive nor the time to treat for mites, if one was going to...which I am not at this point. Various opinions by TBH beekeepers is that mites do not grow to such numbers in this type of hive to be a major problem. We shall see.
Days are getting longer, and it will be only a few weeks before weather warms, dandelions bloom, and bees fly. As horrific as it would have seemed only a year ago, I am spreading dandelion seeds here and there in the garden and yard...they are the first source of pollen in our area. Bees bringing pollen back to the hive is the first indication that the brood is happening as it should! Happy New Year to all of us.
