Cold--but flying!
After being gone for 11 days, I had gotten pretty anxious about our bees, considering we're down to one hive now. Checking right before we left, things looked good but there was a cold spell, as well as some warming into the fifties, while we were gone so I had some concern. Today it's in the low 40's and, though too cool to open up if there is brood inside, it was good to see bees flying at a steady pace in and out of the hive. It wasn't just cleansing or orienteering--they looked purposeful. Temps are to warm into the upper 50's and maybe 60's by the weekend, so I do plan to open it up fully and, if brood is present and numbers and health appear good, I will do a split. I'll try first having them raise a queen, and if that fails May would be a good time to get a new queen anyway. I do think I might try to get to 3 hives this year. Coming close to losing them all makes me want to have some good back-up.
It was nice to get outside a bit. We were in upstate NY, where we had snow most days and it never got much above 40. Pretty dark, cold and damp most of the time. Not fun and a far cry from last year. I looked around a bit at the yard. I was excited to see our osprey have returned, likely while we were gone last week. They occupy a nest in a cell phone tower just beyond our property. We have a good view of it from the second floor of our house and I've taken a number of pictures in the past, including videos of feedings.
It was nice to get outside a bit. We were in upstate NY, where we had snow most days and it never got much above 40. Pretty dark, cold and damp most of the time. Not fun and a far cry from last year. I looked around a bit at the yard. I was excited to see our osprey have returned, likely while we were gone last week. They occupy a nest in a cell phone tower just beyond our property. We have a good view of it from the second floor of our house and I've taken a number of pictures in the past, including videos of feedings.
Here is a regrettably grainy image of her sitting on the nest this afternoon. I'll have to set my better scope up for some good photos. You can see a bit of the white on her head as she is sitting just behind the center upright post on the tower. I saw at least two others when I was outside, so I suspect perhaps at least one offspring from last year has returned as well to the area. A little bonus--while I was looking at her through the telescope, I saw a flock of American Pelicans flying in the background, so they are back as well. Spring is in the air!
Getting back to bees, I have put a link up on my Links sidebar to the BeeInformed web site. If you are a beekeeper and have not done so yet, please take about a half hour to complete their Winter Loss and Management Survey. The more good data that can be collected and analyzed, the better off our bees will be.
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