New York Hillbilly

Now, that is the funniest thing I have seen in ages! hahaha.

I built the Hen Den about three years ago out of all scrap lumber I would pick up along the road. It served its purpose, but my wife grew our flock when she hatched eggs from our first hens. While still called the hen den, it is now the rooster coop! To make my wife happy, and better meet the housing needs of our 18 hens and the one rooster who lives with them, I built the bigger coop. In the summer she really has it dressed up nice and pretty.

Being new to all of this, I put a ton of thought into how I wanted to prepare my hives for the their first winter. And, what I came up with, I then found out some others were also already doing and had a name for it. They were calling them "condensation hives". I insulated my tops to an R30+ factor, and the sides R10 +or-, and with no upper entrance, only bottom entrance for ventilation. My thinking was to create an environment for my bees that would allow the heat to be trapped at the top, moisture to move and form on the side walls rather than around them in the upper chamber or rain down over them. This would allow water to be available for their needs, but not causing them to get wet. Also, with the hive much easier to keep and stay warm, I figured their energy expenditure would be far less, so their food demand would also be less, and if eating less hopefully less need to do cleansing flights in the middle of the winter. Less eating = less pooping! Finally, I thought if it stayed warmer in the hive, the need to cluster just to survive the cold might be less, and if they were able to more freely move about it would allow more bees to be reached when I vaporize oxalic acid for varroa mites. As much as I hated to do it in December, with everyone talking about how bees can starve over the winter if you don’t check on them, I caved to the pressure and braved it one afternoon for very quick peeks into my hives. Other than my obviously lost October colony from a cutout, my other hives all had lots of bees. And while I couldn’t see how much their honey stores were touched, the supplemental bee fondant patties I had placed in my feeder shims were barely touched. I snapped a couple quick pictures of each hive when I opened them in December so I could remember better what was going on once I got back to the house. Even though they had plenty of food, not knowing when I would be able to open them again, I added an extra fondant patty to each hive for good measure. Three hives had moderate numbers of bees in the top. The fourth hive had only a couple bees at first, but when they saw something going on, more started walking up to check things out. My one hive that is routinely the most aggressive really reacted, and as soon as I cracked the hive open a bunch flew out at me and attacked, and I had to quickly shut it and back up and fight them off for a minute. lol I was doing this December check without any bee suit or gloves, or smoke. I was really more worried too many bees would fly out and freeze, than what they were going to do to me. There were very few bees dead in front of my hives each time I checked on them. I’m really hoping for a break in this weather where it gets in the mid 40’s at least, so I can peek and check on them again.

Happy birthday belated! : )

I checked on my bee colonies a couple days ago. The winter weather has been brutal this year, and it’s my first winter keeping bees. My fingers have remained crossed every day since I started this adventure. There is a tremendous amount of information to learn, and then try to apply to be successful. One colony I obtained in October as a cut out from a barn with my mentor, despite my best efforts, did not make it all the way through winter. The other four hives, when I knock on the sides with my ear to the walls, have a lot of buzzing. I’ll be extremely happy if my four colonies get through the year. Spring can’t come soon enough for me and my bees!

Well, after repairing my plow twice today, got soak and wet plowing, got wet feeding chickens and roosters, got wet checking on my bee hives, I finally came in and got dry. Went to settle in with the wife to watch Daytona 500 and chow down on ribs I had slow cooking all morning. Just as they started around the track being led by the Beast, our power went out! Flickered three or four times as a tease, and then off completely. I HATE this Winter!

Is that what BMG means? Blew-up My Gun! lol

I'm hoping you have many more healthy, happy deer seasons ahead of you. And, I don’t think you will be alone here.

Not nearly enough!

I'm way ahead of the game. I sat mine down and demanded they all now social distance at least 6 feet apart. My rooster being the smart ass he is, told me to flock off!

Agree 100%!

I would not be surprised. Over the years, when it gets this cold, there have been times our deck sounded like a rifle shot going off.

I think I can make it the 23rd.

Where is deer season still open? And, lol…how are you not a$$ deep in snow like we are?

Never been there, but looks like a good choice.