Bees in Sandy

A friend of mine and I were chatting Saturday about hurricane preparation and she asked me what I did for the bees.

I had just spend about an hour in the bee yard getting ready for the storm. I knocked down the combined hive so that there were only two super boxes making the hive shorter. Then I gave them half a gallon of honey. This honey is just for them to slurp down.

The strong hive was doing quite well. I didn't give them honey, just took off the empties. They have a honey super so if they get really hungry, they have some food.

At the end, I put extra rocks on the top of the hives. The rocks are about 3lbs each so there is nearly 10lbs of weight on the top of each hive. I put some bales of hay behind the bee deck to help break up the wind.

Over the past few we've taken down trees and branches that could potentially take out the hives. It is by no means perfect as there are still trees in the area, but few are at all close to the bees.

Now it is just a matter of waiting and watching the winds.