Well it is a new year and it was quite the warm December here in Western New York. So much so that I saw dandelions and roses in December. Yep that is right we had flowers blooming in December. I was also able to check on the bees on the 31st of December as it actually was in the 50s that day. Beekeeping in the winter feels like you are running the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment each time you are wondering about the bees. Are the dead or are they alive?

Well the bees are nice and cozy now. They have their mouse guards on the hive, their quiltbox is on top of the hive and everything was basically all wrapped up on October 16th of this year. So now it is wait and see if we did everything right to make sure that they can make it through  another winter. There of course are all kinds of predictions of if this is going to be a warm or cold winter. Regardless if the bees have enough honey weight they should be able to make it through.

Wow it is hard to believe that it is September already. This Summer flew by. I spent a lot of time in the bee yard and a lot of time at home working on projects around the house. This mad the Summer fly by.

So we have just been working on building the number of colonies that we have. We have to date raised 3 new queens and are waiting on another split to finish raising another queen. I tried grafting larva into cell cups, but I am sure there were are few things that I didn't do right this time around. So I will give it another try if the timing permits.

So one of the goals this year was to increase the number of bees colonies that I have. So as I noted in the last post I made splits at the beginning of May. Well after almost a month and a few nerve racking weather swings, yes snow one week and in the 90s two weeks later, I have seen two new queens and believe we have three new colonies total. There may have been some dancing in the apiary when we saw the first queen. When I saw the second queen I realized I better take a picture. As I went into the third hive I noticed eggs but didn't see a queen wandering around any of the combs.

So each year my goal is to increase the number of colonies that I have. Just for reference colonies are a group of bees with the queen, not the physical boxes which are basically hives, or at least that is how I view this.

Spring has finally sprung here in Upstate New York. We have had a few days that have been over 70 degrees and then a few days with some snow.

Typical weather here for this time of year.

I took a quick trip to one of the locations that I have my bees. Knowing that yesterday, January 16th, was at least warmer than it had been weeks prior and that generally this winter has been mild I thought I would give a knock on the hive. Usually a few raps on the side of the hive is enough to get a response from the bees whether it is a loud buzz or them looking out the entrance to see who is there.

With beekeeping it is good to start to think about Winter in September. Some people would say to start thinking about it in August, and they are probably right. In someways it also depends on the weather too. Knowing where you bees are in their stores and overall strength is really what is important.

After taking off some of the summer honey the bees tend to get a little defensive since there is less and less nectar coming into the hive. This time of the year I try to check the hive to make sure they have enough food, but not spend a lot of time inside of them since it can trigger robbing. The hives at my brother's house were doing okay and seemed to be finding small sources of pollen and other resources, but it was certainly not what it had been in June.