Hi Toni-
I too am sorry that you lost your hive. One year, think 2009, I lost over 40 hives to the nasty Small Hive Beetle. This happened in just 5 days. I have never really recovered from this. It actually was the start of my new form of beekeeping- zero chem and minimal messing with them. I now have about 15 hives that have been going years now without intervention. I will probably, if I have time, do some serious splitting this April and May.

One thing that caught my eye in your post was that you felt your hive froze out. I am in zone 8 also- a more brutal 8 (Texas). I once lived in Oregon too so I sort of remember how it felt. Anyway, a true freeze out is not very common- in fact, it would be super rare in zone 8. Usually, when bees freeze out, it is not actually the cold but the fact that they run out of fuel and are not able to generate enough heat. Brood rearing often starts in January (particularly with the Italian strains), that, coupled with few, if any, sources of nectar can spell doom for a hive if they went into winter light (low honey). I have starved my hives to death as late as early March and kicked myself- I should have now better, but, well...excuses excuses...

Also, if there are any underlying disease issues, they will often show up in winter, when the hive is most stressed.
One thing I have seen, if your hive actually starves out, you will often see some dead bees- faces stuck in the comb as if they gave up the ghost trying to get that last taste of honey.

Honey bees can freeze if the frost on the inner cover melts and starts dripping on them and then it gets cold enough to freeze the water again.
All of our hives went into winter well supplied with food and the one hive that we believe froze out had plenty left at the time.

Our remaining hives are doing good and plants are starting to wake up around here so it won't be long until they are busy again.

Hi Tim ~ Thank you for the info. We had a 2 week long, very unusual, very strong wind coupled with 17 degrees not counting wind chill, in December. I didn’t have any wind protection what so ever for the bees. I am trying to have very minimal intervention. I do think that if I had provided them with even just crude wind break, I would still have most of my strong hive today. I am new at this so I could be wrong. They did have 10 frames of beautiful honey, plus honey in the corners of their brood comb, about 3 or 4 frames. Although, I did indeed see some bees with their heads in the comb....?

Mindy, do you have a way to stop the drips on the bees. Someone mentioned putting burlap in the top of the hive, under the roof. Does that sound like something that would have helped my situation? Also, have you every used an entrance that is supposed to stop robbing? I saw on the internet somewhere how to make a neat thing that hooks onto the hive at the entrance that is made from hardware cloth and some one by ones on is attached by a hook and eye... It is from Dr. Eric C Mussen ([email protected]). If I am lucky enough to get bees again this spring, summer, I will try and be a better steward. As I sure do miss those girls.

If you are able to get to the hive before the frost starts melting you can scrape it off. Another option is to have extra inner covers that you can exchange with the frosted one before it warms up.
The idea behind the burlap is that it would soak up the moisture before it dripped on the bees.
We've not tried any of these ideas though so I can't say if they work or not.
Our hives are bringing in fresh pollen and nectar when the weather is warm enough. Just have to get through this next cold spell.

Hi, im still wanting to get bees and have been looking at top bar hives is there anyone here that has topbar hives
thanks

I saw honeybees out already in my crocus blooms. Not much else for them to get into.

Cheryl @dave has a top bar hive so maybe he can answer any questions you have about one.

Rita those crocus are a favorite bee plant for our bees. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost a lot of mine. Hyacinthia are another favorite spring bulb. They seem to prefer the blue ones here.

I have a lot of crocus this spring and was surprised to see lots of honeybees.

They never fail to visit the crocus and doesn't seem to matter if they are purple or yellow with ours. In case you don't know they collect orange pollen from them too.
I'm sure the local honeybees just love your yard.

Just curious how many crocus bulbs did you plant?

I didn't know. I just knew they like those crocus blooms. I planted about 5,000 crocus all told of all different types last fall. What I like is that the crocus will come back year after year so that is very good.

My crocus here gradually dissapeared from all my garden redos. So I decided that I needed them back and planted lots.

OH wow I don't think I have the energy to plant that many crocus but I do plant to plant a lot this fall for them.

If you catch the honey bees on the crocus while you have a camera handy I'd love to see pictures. I have a very hard time catching them on camera here they just won't stay still long enough for me.

And where did you order all of those crocus if I may ask?

Scheepers, or I should say the wholesale part called Van Engelen. They have great bulbs.

I really like the crocus as in the spring I am so ready to see blooms. Here are some crocus pictures minus honeybees. If tomorrow is warmer I will see if I see bees so I can take a picture.

Lovely thank you for sharing and also for the link. I'm off to decide where to make a bed for the crocus and other stuff I want to plant with them.

A week or so ago, the bees were going gonzo over something in our hedges here. I thought it must be the Loropetalum as it was blooming full swing & is quite showy. But wait... no, they aren't in the Loropetalum. They were in the holly! The teeny, tiny blooms were so small It took the bees to tell me the holly was blooming.

Yes they like holly too. Wonder if they are working the holly around here? It's growing in the woods and I haven't been walking in there yet.

Well, there were lots of honeybees out today along with bee look alike pollinators. Wasn't able to get a great picture.



Here is one that rested at the side of the pot. Her hind leggs are covered in stuff (polin?) that she had been gathering from the crocus.

Here the bees are busy in our citrus trees. I'm so glad to see them!

Thanks for sharing the picture Rita. Yes it's pollen on the hind legs. Their pollen buckets are located back there.

They are in the pear tree here right now.

We have a large palm tree outside the back door. I think this is an Acacia Palm but I'm not sure. All of thse white "bulbs" are now replaced with clusters of 3-4 black or very dark purple berries. There's large seeds inside those berries.

The photos I took with the HoneyBees didn't come out clear at all. The girls were all business and WOULD NOT sit still for their portraits! This shot (a few weeks ago) gives you some idea of how busy this tree was. With all the critters buzzing around this tree sounded like it was humming to itself!

ok thanks .. going tomorrow to take a class & they use the top bar hives