Our bees are Carniolans–mostly. One hive has a Carniolan queen bought from Charlie Toth in Somerset County. His queens have been great for us.
Our second hive has a queen the bees raised themselves this Spring, so it’s part Carniolan, too. Our third hive is based on a swarm I caught… and I’m betting they’re Carniolan hybrids as well.
So far, the pedigreed queen seems to be raising the strongest hive with the most honey.
I have allergies and was told to take local honey. I would greatly appreciate an email if and when you have honey available for me to purchase. Thanks in advance. Mary
Almost 60 degrees (F) today, so the bees were flying. Everything looking good so far–nice heavy hives, so the bees have plenty of food. The Carniolan hive seems to be the most active. The hive with the emergency queen doesn’t get as much sun and seems to take longer to break cluster and get going.
It’s gotten cold here in Montclair over the past couple of days, and friends have been asking after the bees–so what happens to bees in the winter? They keep warm by clustering together and when the weather warms up, they’re able to move around the hive or fly out to get a little fresh air. We keep an eye on the weight of the hive to judge if they have enough honey. For now, they’re in pretty good shape–in two or three months, we’ll need to be watching more closely.
Our bees are tucked in for the winter. So, far it’s been pretty mild, so on nice days we see them flying. When it’s cold, they cluster together in the hive to keep warm.