Cleansing and Purging

Two warm days in February, up to 58 degrees in north Norway, brought out the bees.

I have two two hives of Italian’s. The left hive, being slightly stronger than the split right hive, and both being just one season old. I fully insulated both hives in late November, just prior to the snow and cold. The prior year I had experimented with insulating three sides and leaving the southeast side with tar paper only.

Those hives were lost, I believe, to the temperature swings of last winter as the cluster broke and was unable to re-group prior to the sub zero temperature. The warming effect of the black tar paper may have made the bees more active on sunny days. It may have contributed to their broken cluster and death from freezing. Temperature fluctuations inside the hive, I believe, are perilous to wintering bees.

This past weekend was the first time time two new hives had any action outside of the hive. I believe it took the upper 50’s to bring them out of their insulation. A mere 32 or even 40 degree sunny day was not doing it, as the reflective insulation was not allowing solar heating to effect the hives skin or interior.

I checked and then replaced the 2″ thick candy board roof they enjoy. This is never a simple task since the metal tape that binds all corners of the hive must be removed along with the half eaten board which is connected to many of the inhabitants. I peek first to confirm that a large empty circle exists where the cluster recently gathered. If there is a future temperature drop that shrinks the cluster smaller than this void, for an extended period, they will starve.

Now, even more bees take flight as I remove the broken pieces of sugar shards that have the appearance of white Swiss cheese. The new candy board is still warm from it’s creation. I lower it carefully onto the layers of bees that blanket the entire surface of the open hive, leaving no top bars visible.

Most of the bees seem to know that there are few safe places to land other than on me. I am quickly painted yellow. I will not re-wrap this hive until 4:30 p.m. when they have either returned to it’s interior or melted into the snowy landscape. I notice one bee enter my right sleeve. The confirmation sting follows.

The second hive, the one on the right, will wait until March for it’s second candy board as I estimate the size of the hive to be slightly smaller.

Both hives have purged thousands of bees this weekend. I witnessed that some flew as far as 1000 feet from the hive. Most that landed in snow, did so within just a few feet from the entrance. A group perished beside my backhoe which, with it’s yellow color, lured them to it’s surrounded snow drifts. Many found their way to my front porch, which faces south east. They drank water from a large mat as I took my lunch break reclining on a lounge chair wearing a T-shirt.

Bees and Maine weather are both astonishing. It is hard not to feel a little sad, like a child might, for the thousands lost in the snow. I know this purging made my hives stronger and now more likely to see spring. They have more food, of course, but they have had a full cleansing. The interior is safe from too large of a hive where they could eat themselves into starvation and there is now less a chance for the hive becoming sick due to fecal contaminants.

It is just February 5th. We shall see.