Winter time inspection

In the morning as temperatures rise about 60 degrees I plan on doing a short hive inspection. What I’m looking for is first and foremost, are they alive. Then I will check their food stores and numbers. This time of year honey bees need to be healthy and strong. It is usually bitter sweet for me because sometimes I’m successful and other times not so much. We feed our bees in the fall trying to help them prepare for the long cold months of winter ahead. Some beekeepers treat their bees with chemicals in the fall to hopefully get rid of pest.  I don’t, we have always let the bees take care of them self’s and we have also introduced genetics in our apiary that hopefully will fix this problem without chemicals.

In the morning I will have my fingers crossed that all is well and the bees are smiling at me. I will have food in hand so to give them a little boost. No smoke will be needed as the bees will be in a good mood to see me. Most of our hives are very good nature and are usually glad to see me.