My friend is infected! (with the bee-loving-virus that is)
He's signed up for a beekeeping course (the same one I'm taking - but I'm taking two this year). He's working on my hive boxes and I've delivered him some wood to work with. It's 8 mm ply wood that he'll fix some insulation material to and then work on an outer shell if needed. We'll see what he comes up with as I have given him one of my Zander hive bodies as an example to work with. (Observation window and all)
But let's not get ahead of ourselves and do first things first:
Weather Report:
It still hasn't been really winter like I've seen winter before here in Belgium. At night we had some temperatures touching the 0°C but never long below that. And I must say it's wet weather, but we've had some nice (although cold) days too.Hive Report:
Making some video clips I posted a YouTube video, so lets put that up first. Images say more than words. I did a voice over in this clip on YouTube since the background noise was nothing but cars on the highway, but I don't really have a lot to say, other than: I saw bees! The clip was shot on november 14th for my first apiary and november 13th (the day before) on my 2nd apiary.Apiary One:
I do really see a difference between the Simplex Nuc SS 1 2018 (I still haven't picked another name, but I'm working on it making plans for the year to come) and the split I made out of it; The SS 2 2018. The split hive catches some sun where the mother hive stays in the shade. It is my belief this is the reason when it is sunny out and the temperature reaches 10°C or thereabouts the bees on the split do go out and the bees in the motherhive don't.Till today, 09th januari 2019, the buzzbox app tells me both hives are alive. I dare not disturb them when it's below 10°C. I don't even look through the windows!
Apiary two:
The video is rather clear on that. The first hive you see on that stand is the booming 6-frame nuc I got out of the wall in Anzegem. But I don't know what queen is in there, one they made from my Buckfast bees, or a Carnica? The second nuc shows some, but not nearly as much activity, and I only saw the one bee leave the TO2 hive at that time.Allas the situation did not improve for that TO2 hive. I'm afraid I've lost them...
For now I'll keep it at that, but I'll be back with another winter update, since I have some clips, or should have if I can find them, laying around with a similar look on the hives, but no activity. I'll wrap it up here since it's past midnight and I'm practicly falling asleep
Bob Out
