Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Bees

It is unusually warm here on Christmas day so I though it would be an excellent time to visit the bees and see what they were up to. I also planned to drop off a Christmas gift. I snuck in a sugar patty in each hive. 


The bees were enjoying the sunny weather. They were very curious but not aggressive in the least. Often I find the bees in the winter a bit unpredictable. They are much easier to work when they have been outside. Bees don't pee or poop in their hive so on sunny days when the temperature gets above 50 degrees, they take elimination flights. These elimination flights allow them to relive themselves away from the hive. The warmer it is, the farther away they go.


I dropped one hive down a box but the other hive still had a couple of partial frames of honey in the attic so I left it and put their sugar patty up top just on the edge of the hole. 


The bees were not the only ones to get presents today. I got some new hive tools, a nifty all wood jar feeder, an new honey super complete with frames, and a nifty sign from from my husband (who also took pictures in the bee yard).