This sucks...

I feel bad for you. I really do. There's nothing good out of winter weather. Hope you have awd or 4wd for that snow.

P.S. All I want is a palm tree in my front yard. One day.

I feel your pain! I have about 20 or so virgin queens that need to go on their mating flights just sitting in the hives waiting for the weather to warm up.

beekeep

We're having quite a cold spell here in Texas too. Last week the temps were hovering around 80. This weekend it turned downright cold. Highs only in the mid-upper 60s. Burrrr!

Don't be so damn tight, go buy them some clothes, bundle them up and send them on their way :))) dale

what's winter?

I think we outlawed those in California in the 50's or something...

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

And I though you were going to tell me to screw them myself!

beekeep

Careful about this... If ole Red reads something about virgin anything you'll have a guest for supper tonight.

Bees....sheep....they're all the same aren't they

Denny

Beekeep? Spend money? HA! He's tighter'n a bulls ass in fly season!

One question Gregg: How do you know if they are virgin bees?

A couple of ways. The queens tail is short and stubby and the worker bees don't pay any attention to her. Apparantly virgin queens smell different than mated laying queens.

beekeep

Tonight on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: What do bees have to do with how much you spend on groceries? Without them, crops face potential disaster. Now they're dying by the thousands. What's killing them off and what's being done to save them?

Apparantly??? You mean to tell us that you don't sniff your bees???

Denny

thanks for the info, that's very interesting dale

Actually I do! One of the diseases that they get, American Foulbrood, can be detected by smell.

beekeep

that's really hit my area (central calif) hard.. they say that farmers here can't get enough bees, because the parasite spreads so fast that all the "new" bees get it.. Very serious concern, since the #1 #2 produce income counties are here.. (about 14 billion a year, if I remember the numbers right)

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Greg, I'm sorry but I got this mental picture of you reaching in a hive, snatching onto a bee and holding it up to your schnoz. Then the ole bee decides that your beak would make an easy target and well, you get the point from here.........

Denny

A typical almond farm rents 100,000 hives in the spring. They usually pay $40 - $50 per hive. This year they paid $100 per hive. They were digging them out of the snow in Montana to take them to Califonia.

I lost 55% of my hives last winter. I'm hard on them, I harvest them all winter long, but I usually only lose 20%. It's getting tough.

beekeep