Winter Flying

It's January 20. A beautiful mid 50s day with the sun out and no wind.
The girls decided to pop out for a flight. At least the girls in the hives at home. I didn't have time to go check the others (although I would have loved to).

Chickens

I turned the chickens loose in the garden the other day. Apparently they couldn't find their way back through the gate to get to their coop (They don't call them "bird brains" for nothing). They decided to put themselves to bed on the top of one of my bee Boxes.

Damn cows!

I got a phone call yesterday from Frank Sr.. The cows out at the Peczuh farm had broken the back leg of my TBH and it was leaning over.
I drove out to inspect/repair.
The outer cover was pretty much destroyed and not even in place. All the top bars were perfectly propolized in place The back right leg was snapped just below the main hive body.
I gave the hive a good thump before messing with it to make sure there were even bees inside. They were. I taped over the 3 front entrance holes to keep them in while I worked.

I was able to stand it back up and secure a temporary replacement leg to the outside using screws.

I (and Tim) moved the hive to the north of the fence. The cows won't be able to get to it here.
I secured a cardboard piece in front of the entrance holes to create a visible barrier and removed the tape. I want the girls to have to reorient themselves when they start flying again. It's been pretty cold lately so I'm not sure when that will be. In addition to the cold, the sun had just gone down so I'm confident that no girls were afield during the move. I'll return sometime soon ,when I repair the outer cover, and remove the cardboard barrier. I covered the top bars with a sheet of plastic cardboard, weighing it down with a long board, a brick and a pole (I hope it's enough).

The hive was light. I'm nervous about how much honey they might have. I'll have to keep an eye on them and feed if necessary.

Checked on the Peczuh TBH today. The nasty wind storm the other night made me worry it might have blown over. It had not blown over :-). I could hear the gentle buzz of bees inside after I knocked on the side.
Weather was painfully cold (24 degrees at noon) so I did not open it up.
I adjusted the bottom board a bit to better close off the bottom.
I also noticed that the cows have been using the hive as a scratching post. The corners are all bent up and the hive itself was about a foot off of the support boards.
I'll have to move it. Or construct something to keep the cows off.

Checked all my TBH on Sunday. Could hear the gentle buzz of bees in all three of them.
I closed the bottom boards to keep the winter wind out.
The TBH at Rosiers had signs of sickness (mustard marks below the entrance on the ground).

Did not open any of the hives as it was too cold.

Extracted (crush and strain) from 2 of my  hives.

Schampel Oscar (back yard)
quite a lot of brood (all stages) and bees. Very little stores. Very little pollen. They have drawn out a little comb in the top box (3) but it's all empty.

Schampel TBH
Full hive. These girls have been hanging out on the front of the hive every evening and into the night. By morning they are all inside. Extracted 3 bars of honey from the south end. Dropped one of them back in, all over the girls. They were quite pissed. When trying to pick it up again, I took 2 stings. One sting on the end of each of my index fingers. After putting the gloves on, I took about a dozen more stings into the gloves (I did not feel them). I cleaned my mess up as best as I could and closed this end of the hive. The north end of the hive is cross combed and would be difficult to get into. I left it alone.

Rosier TBH
Also very full. I pulled 2 bars out of the south end and about 4 bars from the north end. Used a goose feather to brush the girls off the comb. Did not smoke them. They get a little ornery at this. Took another sting on the thumb and another on the back of the right hand. Very pleased with how straight this colony has built up. Left them several bars of honey that weren't completely full or capped. Left empty bars between the drawn out bars.

Peczuh TBH
These girls were pissed from the second I opened the hive. I could see from the end that they haven't stored much. They are still at only about 12 bars. Due to their ornery disposition, I closed it up and didn't look any further.

Ended up with a full 5 gallon bucket of stacked comb which when strained, yielded almost 3 gallons of honey. :)

Extracted (crush and strain) from the 2 hives at Jareds' farm today.

Hive 1 - 5 tall - tons of bees going in and out - bringing in pollen - weeds grown over entrance, but the bees don't seem to care
Box 1 and 2 - nest box - top bars - did not touch
Box 3  bees honey box - top bars - did not touch (appeared full)
Box 4 - partially drawn out frames - extracted 2 frames
Box 5 - empty frames - left it on

Hive 2 - 3 tall - tons of bees - pollen coming in - mostly using top entrance
Box 3 - brood in top box - on 3 frames - extracted 2 frames of honey only - 5 frames crossed combed together and couldn't get into them
Box 2 - Brood on several frames - did not extract any frames from this box
Box 1 - Honey and pollen mostly - extracted a couple frames

Didn't see the queen in either box.
Rather calm bees considering that I ripped the hives completely apart. No stings. I did smoke them at first.