Frank, hope all went well with your girls. Do you stay at your summer place during the summer, to look after your bees there? Is it a warmer location than your winter home. We live in an area where we seldom get snow, when we do, it is a hardship for sure, people just don't understand about snow right around here. They become the worst drivers inthe world and it honestly makes one not even want to venture out on the roads. I always make sure that if there is an inkling that there may be any snow on the way, I get out to the store to have everything required on hand to look after the family here. I have grown up on the south coast of B.C., always lived in a very mild climate. I do love the snow, but it is far more fun to go to it than have it come to me. Is there alot of work when there is snow around your hives? Does it ever cover the hives right over? I understand that snow is quite porous, so I know that they would not smother, but is there any danger to it? Do you have problems with animals invading your colonies because you live obviously a distance from your colonies? There definitely must be a global warming I believe, because as a kid, many, many years ago, we would have snow that would stay for quite a long time in this area, and it would be so cold, but it is not like that at all anymore.
I was happy to hear that you took the wasps outside, they probably would have perished in your shop. I love insects and do my best to not do them harm. My family sometimes thinks that I am rather strange because I rescue so many different insects from dangers. When I find an enormous banana slug, I don't have the heart to kill it, as I do to the nasty smaller black ones that hide so easily. Usually the big banana slugs are around the perimeter of a ravine that runs by our home near the bush, they don't seem to come into my gardens in my cultivated areas. So when I find one that strays too close for comfort, I pick it up and throw it back down the ravine. That seems to deter them for a bit. They are enormous, but absolutely majestic in their own right. Bugs, slugs and grubs, what a wonderful world it is. Have a good day. Cindi