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Author Topic: Lid Lifting Alert  (Read 3944 times)

Offline tefer2

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Lid Lifting Alert
« on: March 06, 2014, 10:42:37 am »
We are suppose to get to 40F tomorrow here in Michigan.
Good time to have a peak to check candy stores.
41F on Monday too.
Springtime?  8-)  Not!

Offline danno

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2014, 12:46:09 pm »
they are only saying middle 30's here but also a chance of snow and sleet

Offline Vance G

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2014, 05:04:15 pm »
It pushed fifty briefly yesterday and I popped lids and put in pollen patties and added a few sugar bricks to any who didn't obviously have stores.  We have up and down weather with above freezing to mid fifties for next ten days forecast.  Hopefully it will then get better.  Ground frozen hard as a rock but Chinook means snow eater and a lot of snow on the flats is fast going. 

Offline sc-bee

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2014, 05:06:35 pm »
33 here this morning and rain today and tomorrow.
John 3:16

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2014, 06:39:58 pm »
Had 36F here today with bright sunshine. Checked an outyard and they were having themselves
a big time cleansing flight. Full sun on the black tar paper warms them up.
By the stained snow, they were more than ready for it.
Just seeing live bees, makes me a happy camper.  :-D
Now on to mixing more pollen sub.

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2014, 10:20:52 am »
Day#3, woke up again to bright sunshine! Very rare around here this winter.
Gonna head out as soon as it warms up above freezing today.
Forecast is above 40F at noon time. Great chance to have a look at them.

Offline Bush_84

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2014, 10:33:33 am »
Popping my lids today to see who made it. 
Keeping bees since 2011.

Also please excuse the typos.  My iPad autocorrect can be brutal.

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2014, 10:40:22 am »
I had the truck loaded with pollen sub. this morning.
Now having second thoughts that I should wait a another week.
Once I start them up, I will have to feed till they find their own.
I'm really surprised at how many have made it through all this.
Going back to tar paper wraps, has saved us this winter.
I'll try to not make any mistakes till the trees and flowers get going.
Anyone else thinking about pollen sub this early?

Offline bud1

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2014, 11:00:52 am »
naa mine have a steady stream o pollen coming in  when ever they can fly
to bee or not to bee

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2014, 11:11:56 am »
Bud, mine are flying too! Just bringing back a bunch of white pollen resembling snow!

Offline danno

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2014, 04:41:16 pm »
we finally just touched 40F   This is just the 2nd time this year

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2014, 10:52:08 am »
Checked three yards yesterday.
This is my second trip through them since the first of the year.
Main purpose was to check emergency candy bricks and to add more if needed.
I was happy with the fact that I only had to add extra to about 15 of them total.
The great news, 98% of the hives wrapped in black tar paper have survived this winter.
The bad news, I didn't wrap all of them.
All but a few of the unwrapped ones have perished.
The few with live bees, have very small clusters and seem to be failing.
One more blast of Arctic Air will most likely polish them off.

We had stopped wrapping our hives the last couple years, mild winter conditions.
This year, thought I would wrap half of them and see what the results were.
Changed my mind after the sub zero temperatures finally arrived though.
So, I scrambled to get the rest covered up.
The problem was getting to them with all the snow and then working in freezing conditions.
I managed to complete another 25% of them and they have made it through.

The temperature in my home yard reached upper forties for a very short period of time.
That brought on massive cleansing flights from all.
It's an ugly site with all the staining, but a good site for a beekeeper.
Hopefully we are on our way to spring. I can't take any more winter up here.
Now, where's my coffee cup!

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2014, 11:23:59 am »
Great news, it's going to be mid fifties here on Monday.
If you haven't made it out to your bees, the warmer temps this week should make it happen!
Seeing who made it and checking feed are job one here.
Now, get out there and have some bee fun. It's been a long long winter.

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2014, 12:01:28 pm »
Bright sun and 51F today! Saw a couple idiots wearing shorts today.
I'm done for a week or till we add pollen sub. Hope everyone got a chance to look at em.
Icebergs are falling off the house and barn. Scary!

Offline danno

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #14 on: March 12, 2014, 08:54:22 am »
Here we go again.  Below zero tonight and 24 right now.  At least all the snow is heading down south by  tefer2 and not up here.  Our average annual snow fall is 75 inch  This year we are just under 140 inch.   Got to check a small yard of 9 yesterday.  Two dead.   I can live with that.   The seven needed more candy.  I still have 40 colonies that I have not been to since Nov

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2014, 10:24:58 am »
We got 6 inches down here. The stuff is so wet and heavy you can't even lift a shovel full.
No one around here will be lifting any of those lids today.
School on my road had the roof collapse last week!
Back up to 43 on Friday, here come the flood water again.
Is it ever going to be over with?
You seen this?
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/nrcs_wants_to_help_fruit_growers_help_honey_bees_by_planting_more_flowers
« Last Edit: March 12, 2014, 10:50:20 am by tefer2 »

Offline danno

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #16 on: March 12, 2014, 12:21:16 pm »
You seen this?
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/nrcs_wants_to_help_fruit_growers_help_honey_bees_by_planting_more_flowers

Had a farmer call me last night that was applying for a grant.   Not sure if its the same free money but he said he needed 5 colonies minimum on the property to get it..   I would have liked to help him but with the winter going the way it has I am not planning on any new yards this year

Offline tefer2

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2014, 07:43:51 pm »
Most of my hives have already started to ramp up despite the recent snow event.
Scrambling to get any dead outs closed up or hauled to the barn.
Found a few that had robbers in them already.
Saw a skunk cabbage and electric green moss, growing in bare spots.
Mostly on my snow blower path behind the house.
Everything has turned from snow to mud, don't you just love it?
I'm watching those maples, taps are showing up the last few days.
If they get any sap, it will be short and sweet for them.



Offline Better.to.Bee.than.not

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #18 on: March 12, 2014, 09:56:18 pm »
I was worried this winter honestly because of the brutal cold...but I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I think the deep cold really helps things rather than the warm spells which confuse them.

Offline Dallasbeek

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Re: Lid Lifting Alert
« Reply #19 on: April 01, 2014, 12:39:48 am »
I feel for you guys up north.   I have 3 nephews in St. Paul eager to get into beekeeping.  Last year was so brutal in what was supposed to be spring that they put it off til this year.  We'll see if these young guys can do it this year.  A niece in Vermont has ordered 3 packages this year.  We who live in the siuth should bow down to you guys up north for what you do.  We have it relatively easy here, with plants already breaking dormancy in mid-March.  But when I come up there in July, your plants are beautiful and ours are starting to burn up, so .....  We do what we can, I guess.

Gary in Dallas
"Liberty lives in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no laws, no court can save it." - Judge Learned Hand, 1944