So far so good...

So far the bees are doing good in the cool darkness of the blacked out garage...ventilation is good and the window has been blacked out in there. We rarely go in there apart from to let the dogs out in the morning and in at night, so they are relatively undisturbed. All signs are good :)

Almost settled.....

Here is the hive in place - just needing to be straightened up and to have the straps removed and the lids put in place etc etc.....the winter lid has plenty of ventilation because it's condensation and moisture that kills bees in winter....we checked on them after their journey and they were buzzing about but were fine - just wondering what was going on :)

This morning they are doing fine - quiet in the hive - you can hear them deep inside but thats about it :)

Heading to its winter home!

Occasionally the hive would swing out and I watched in horror imagining it falling and having bees flying everywhere!! But Lloyd would just stop the tractor and wait for it to stop swinging. Really he was going so very slowly that it was barely moving - it was just me stressing for nothing!

Strapping up the hive!!

Lloyd strapped up the hive nice and tight using boards to keep it all together and then attached it to the teeth of his tractor. He then lifted it up in the air where it hung and carried it that way up the hill towards the house and garage.

Away for Winter.....

Well its been a long time since I updates but really there hasn't been anything to update about. Fall is really a time of just feeding syrup to the hive and leaving them be. I did notice that the bees are much more aggressive in the Fall - they seem very protective of the hive in the Fall - protecting the honey stores in preparation for Winter. I also noticed all the dead drones when they kicked them out of the hive.

We had a skunk visiting the hive for a while - not often but we noticed the scratch mars and that the syrup feeders had been tossed aside.

We had a nice long Fall this year with good temperatures right up until the start of November and no snow yet which is wonderful, and so we did not move the bees inside until last night. We couldn't decide what to do with them still, but we did finally decide that with just one hive it was best to put them inside. So last night, after dark, we moved them into the garage. There is good ventilation in there, they will be out of the wind, we can keep it dark, maintain a low, steady temperature and keep an eye on them too.

It may not work.....it may be the wrong thing to do - but its what we've chosen to do. The next few posts will show pictures of our adventure in moving the hive last night - my amazing husband Lloyd did a fabulous job!