We have now had the snow for nearly a week and thankfully having pruned the trees last month we don’t have the worry that snow on the branches will bend and break any.
The bees are in a tight cluster in the hives and when the weather is cold they don’t use as much food being tightly clustered to conserve heat. When the weather improves I will check the weight of each hive and if necessary give them some sugar candy to give them a boost if stores are getting low.
These pictures were taken before I removed the snow at the entrances to allow some ventilation into the hives, this has been a daily job after each fresh fall of snow.
This picture looking down onto the entrance to one of the WBC hives shows that a bird was being inquisitive and hopping around on the entrance board. Thankfully no bees flying so it did not take any.
Cavell Orchards 