Yesterday I turned Martha 90 degrees so she is facing South. I rocked her around. She is heavy. The girls did not like it, and a few came out and I was stung in the leg. I have arthritis in my hip and I hope it helps a little.
Martha was facing east. She is under a large silver maple and it is shady where she is. When I placed the hives, it was morning and I noticed that the spot had a clear shot at the eastern sky, so I thought that she would wake up early. It turns out that in the height of summer, the bushes to the north cut off the sun and the only light filters in from the south. Short of moving the hive, the best sunlight is to the south so I turned her 90 degrees.
She is unstable now. I have to shim the hive so she doesn’t rock around. I worry about her being knocked over. The kids will find the hives eventually and I want to keep them alive as long as possible.
I opened Connie and she was full of very active bees. They were consuming the pollen patty on the top bars. Martha was ignoring the pollen.
I opened one of the dead hives and I found a dead queen surrounded by bees. They may have starved to death. They had burrowed into the comb, but were surrounded by frames full of honey. I guess that they suffocated and there was not enough population to handle the winter cold.
I have to harvest the honey from the dead hives, but the honey won’t flow in this weather. I can’t bring the frames inside as they would make a sticky mess. I want to collect the frames that I can harvest and move them to the deck. I want to seal them up so insects and mice can’t rob the honey and when the weather warms up I will set up the honey spinner and collect it all.
