Nov 1, 2020


The end of season!


I love autumn/fall. The leaves are changing color beautifully and a kind of calm comes into nature.

Not the huzzing and buzzing from creatures in the garden. Our bees are ready for winter. They are not flying out anymore and stay indoors.

As I have relatives and friends in The Netherlands and Belgium I keep track on how the bees are behaving there.

Well that is a big difference! Mine have been in a clump for a couple of weeks now, while in The Netherlands and Belgium the bees are still flying out!

The temperature today was a whopping16 degrees Celsius and we are already in november. I do not think in the 16 years we have lived here that it has been so warm.


In preparation of autumn we had to isolate my Warré hive because the wood is to thin to last it through winter.

It can be very cold here, but I we had almost no winter at all last year!

So Pieter made a frame and we put some jute on it. We placed the frame with the jute over the hive and stuffed it with hay.

I hope that will do the trick!

The downside is that I cannot check how my bees are doing because my inspection windows are covered too.

Our next project this winter will be to making a new Warré hive with adjustments and thicker wood.

One of the adjustments I am going to do is that I want to make a fluster in every box with their own landing platform.

Why? Because I think (have seen) that the bees have their own assignments and do not need to be in certain parts of the hive. So if everyone has their own fluster to the right level in the hive it wil save them energy.


My other hive is a hexagon and made by Geert Steelant. You can find his website here. There is a lot of information on his website.



Our Warré hive in “wintermode”.

Look how the bees are gathering together to keep each other warm!

Till next time

Love,

Annuska

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