The last week of October I decided to close up the beehives for winter due to Hurricane Sandy threatening our area. I did a final inspection of both hives. My slow hive never even touched their top super and stored no honey in it. The hive is light. There were yellow jackets, many of them, just sucking out uncapped nectar right inside the hive. The bees were doing nothing to defend their hive. There were yellow jackets also flying around outside the hive. I saw mites on the tummies of several adult bees and a couple of hive beetles. Needless, to say it has problems. I set out a wasp trap, drenched the bees with Honey Bee Healthy, and gave them one more jar feeding.
The other hive looked healthy. No mites, beetles, or wasps seen. I don't understand how 2 hives standing only 2 feet apart can be so different. This hive had a full top super and was so heavy I couldn't lift it at all. For this hive I drenched it also and gave them one more jar feeding.
The following day, I removed the empty jars, placed a serving of homemade bee candy on the top bars of each hive, put the screens on covered with the winter top, and checked to make sure the entrance reducers were on tight. Said a prayer :)
The following day, Sandy decided to make a visit. First it was just a cold misty rain. This is my least favorite weather! As the day progressed it got colder and rainier. In the middle of the night is when the wind came. We had several brown outs but the power remained intact. In the morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow. No school for the kiddos so no work for me. It was cold, only in the 30s.
That day, I found out my sister in Long Island was without power and my cousins and uncle had their neighborhood in Breezy Point, NY severely damaged by ocean surge and fire. The pictures of Staten Island, Queens, and the Jersey Shore are heartbreaking. The damage is staggering. The pain I feel for those who have lost some much is intense. I pray for help to come to them soon and in the meantime, God protects them from hunger, cold, sickness, and gives them some peace through this terrible storm.
In our area, in the mountains, nine days post-Sandy many are still without power and have have a lot of snow on the ground still. Thankfully, here nobody lost their homes but they still need help. A warm shelter and hot meals. Many here are better able to cope due to personal sized generators, wood stoves, and garden stored food for winter, but nine days without power still must be trying even to the hardiest of people.
As for us, our garden suffered some wind damage to the raised beds and my mums were nearly blown out of the grown as ware my dahlias. The bees took a hard loss. When I went out to check on them, there were hundreds of dead bees on the bottom boards. I took off the entrance reducers and cleaned out the dead bees. Such a shame. I am not sure what happened.
Now with Sandy over and a nice weekend ahead of us here I plan on finishing up my garden clean up for the winter. I also need to start thinking about Christmas gifts for the boys!!!
We still haven't spun the honey out of my Father-in-Laws frames, hope to do that soon.
In closing today, I feel it would be unpatriotic or something of me not to remark on the Presidential elections which took place yesterday. As I am sure all knows, President Obama was re-elected for another 4 years. I hope now with all the contention of the election behind us that we can come together as a nation, put politics aside, and move us all forward in a positive way. I pray God blesses this nation in ways we can't even imagine:)
God bless until next time.
Thanks for sharing your story of Sandy, it's hard to imagine over here in the UK the damage a hurricane can cause. Sad about the bee losses. Did you ever find out why the colony was so badly affected? Perhaps it was trauma or sudden drop in temperatures during the storm?
ReplyDelete