Getting the Bees Ready for Spring
Posted by Devin Manky March 22, 2016
We recently did our first full check-in with the bee hives after a long winter's rest!
Since October the bees have been on their own at a low-land site in the Fraser Valley staying warm. They produce extra honey near the end of the season to see them through the winter. The Queen's lay special worker bees that will live longer than normal but stay in the hive for the winter keeping the queen warm and offering protection. The workers cluster around the Queen and as a group they move around and slowly consume the honey stores.
As the weather starts to get warm in the spring the bees start to get more active and leave the hive to check out conditions and look for food. Once they are finding food the Queen will start to lay eggs in preparation for a new workforce to face the upcoming spring. These new bees will be the first batch for the new year and the bees who looked after the Queen all winter will pass away.
It was great to see our bees again and many of the hives are well underway with their spring preparations. Many were already bringing in Pollen. We will 'bee' monitoring the conditions and when the snow melts up here we'll get ready to bring them back up the mountain for the summer.
A few more photos from our day:
