Life with Bees

Spring is in the air. Oh, I know it’s only February 3, but I can feel it…and I’m not the only one.

With the imminent arrival of spring comes the return of one aspect of our lives that’s been largely dormant the last few months—beekeeping. We’re novice beekeepers, having stumbled into this part-hobby, part-job with the purchase of a bee nucleus last May. We’ve been scrambling to figure out what we got ourselves into ever since.

Once of my biggest fears was losing the bees over the winter. Most of my research gave me no better than a 50/50 chance of making it to spring with my hive healthy and intact. So I did rigorous research on how to keep them alive October through March. On top of the two hive bodies (big boxes) in which they wintered, I put a one-inch spacer with an upper entrance drilled into it to allow air flow and give them an exit if snow blocked the lower entrance. 

On top of that I put a three-inch “quilt box,” which is not a quilt at all, but a box filled with cedar shavings. The main purpose was to wick moisture out of the hive, since moisture, even more than cold, is a bee’s enemy during the winter months. Cedar shavings, in particular, would also help deter wax moths, a bee pest I have yet to see. 

After an unseasonable cold snap in December, the temperatures reversed and became unseasonably warm, with some days reaching into the 60s during January. I was relieved to see my bees come out for a cleansing flight on a couple different days, but then I had a new problem. By February, my girls were super active, without a flower in sight on which to forage. Since their honey stores are meant to get them through a winter with low activity, I was worried that their activity would cause them to eat too much too early in the winter—and starve. So I decided to try my hand at bee fondant, a sticky semi-solid intended for winter feeding. 

I think I messed it up. That’s another topic. 

What has me all revved up as I write this is that, when I went to crack the hive lid today for the first time since October, those bees were busy. Not just flying around aimlessly looking for forage, or cleaning out their hive. They were busy packing in pollen. In Eastern Oregon. In February. 

Look at all those busy bees on a February afternoon!

Look at their back legs, and you'll see little packets of gold several of those girls are carrying--pollen.

I look around and see a pollen wasteland. Where could they be finding it? But finding it they are, and I think I need to be a little less concerned about these amazing little creatures starving to death right now. 

Yeah, I think they got this.