Sealed with celotex

My niece being here, I decided that today I would insulate the hives for the cold months ahead and clad them with celotex. As two hands are not nearly enough for this, I was counting on Natalie to help me. It should have been a simple operation, as by now the bees should have all be inside the hive, clustered and keeping warm. However, as I have remarked previously, things with animals don't necessarily turn out as you expect them to.

Going to the hives with a pile of celotex

Anyway, to start at the beginning: we made our way to the hives, with a pile of celotex, straps to tie them tight and a saw for last minute fitting issues. Natalie had a beesuit on, but I thought I could do without, as there wouldn't be any bees flying around, would there?

Insulating the roof

When I got to the Moon, I realised the mouse guard had slipped. I don't know when this happened, possibly on Monday during the storm, possibly earlier. I haven't been to the hives for a fortnight, so anything is possible, really. When I fixed it, a host of bees immediately shot out from the hive, looking for trouble. Natalie ran away screaming, despite wearing a beesuit, and my sister (who took the photos) was stung almost immediately. It was at this moment that I decided to don a beesuit as the Moon colony was more active than it should have been.

Resizing celotex

After that initial shock, it was more or less plain sailing: I removed the contact feeder, left the eke and put celotex in that, as roof insulation. As those slabs were too large, I had to engage in some last minute DIY, sawing them down to size.

Natalie holding the celotex while I tie it down

Then with Natalie's help, I strapped four slabs of celotex to the hive walls.

Last slab of four

I did the same for the Star, where the bees were much calmer to not being active at all. The only thing I noticed is that their contact feeder was still pretty full, which may have to do with the syrup having crystallised against the mesh of the contact feeder. Am now worried whether they have enough winter supplies.

Two hives snugly wrapped up in space-age insulation

Somehow have the fear that come spring I won't have a sinlge colony - both having fallen victim to bad winter management.

Catching the winter cold

With winter drawing closer it's time to do some DIY again. Thing is, I'd like to insulate the hives over winter by wrapping them up (not literally, in whatever way you want to use that word now) in celotex. Although no bee book I have looked into so far recommends it, I read a newsletter in one of the beekeeping magazines I now receive which told of positive experiences with insulating the hives in winter. This makes sense to me. Most of the time the bees die because, although they have sufficient food, it is too cold for them to break cluster. So, if they're insulated, they can; besides, they should not need as much food, as they do not need as much energy to keep themselves warm.
With apparently so many advantages it is strange that not more beekeepers are celotexing their hives. I hope I don't find out why not in spring...
Luckily the school - a Victorian mansion that needs constant loving attention from our handymen - has scraps of celotex. So I nabbed these and cut them to size.

When to put them on the hives? I have no clue, but anytime now. As it's half term I'll do this without the pupils, but my niece is coming, so I'll wait for her. I'm sure she'll be excited to help and then see photos of herself on the web.

Beesuit becomes boilersuit

Slipped guard

Having discovered that the mouse guard in the Star was not doing its job properly, I decided to repair it today. I had taken it off so that the bees could access their hive freely again (and just hope that no mouse decided to set up camp in the Star last night).

It was a beautiful, sunny day, but rather chill and there were only one or two bees flying round the Star. They might have got the message that winter is now definitely approaching and they need to sort out their stores.
Anyway, armed with various screws and a screwdriver, I went to the Star and repaired the mouse guard. Sounds rather grand that: it was basically a case of putting in a screw that would support the guard - and done. A bee did come to have a look and landed on my arm as I was twisting the screw in. I think she approved.

Repairing the mouse guard

Preparing for winter

Have not been posting the past few weeks, as not much has happened.

Well, that's not quite true: the school was inspected and the bees had to yield before the exigencies of such academic spirallings. I do try and put the bees first in all, but last week was so intense that I really had little time for the little ones.

Nevertheless, I have been cooking up lots of syrup (my 1.5l bottle count is now up to 7 in an attempt to keep up with the speed the bees are taking the syrup down into the hives). Have also learnt how to handle the contact feeders and have a little bowl to catch the surplus when I turn them around. Amazing how beekeeping equipment just proliferates. My guess is the Moon is full up and the Star is also doing well. Bees are still collecting pollen though - no signs of any winter quiet or calm yet.

One thing that bothers me with the contact feeders is that whenever I replenish them, a number of bees are trapped in the ekes and die there. Is there no way to prevent this? I know, remove the wood covering one hole in the crownboard, but then my busy bees would start doing silly things in the eke. Not sure what else to do. It does pain me to trap a few, knowing they face certain starvation.

Combined feeder and deathtrap

Also put the varroa boards in, but left them in so long that the results are lots of muck, fuzz and bits and bobs and no way to count dropped mites. Not sure I will count them this year. There are still mites parachuting down, so will treat the hives with oxalic acid and then start afresh with the new season. While that makes me feel like a rotten beekeeper, there's really not that much I could do now. I guess part of beekeeping is taking decisions of what to do and what not to do - despite what the books say. Hmmm... Hope all goes well. Whenever I stray from the path of libral wisdom, I feel all my bees will die over the winter.

When going to check on feeders and see what hefting the hive was like (it told me nothing, but the hives seemed heavy), I discovered that the mouseguard on the Star had slipped, effectively blocking the entrance and making it impossible for bees to enter or exit. Will have to fix that tomorrow. Opened the guard and the bees very happily clustered around the entrance and seemed glad that the building works were over and their main thoroughfare free again.
Didn't even get stung. That's true gratefulness!