Re: OT - Cold Bees in Barn

Posted by HillsofTn on February 09, 2007 at 09:16:34 from (68.19.228.212):

In Reply to: OT - Cold Bees in Barn posted by Joe MD on February 09, 2007 at 06:58:25:

Hey Joe,

I used to have a couple of beehives, but that doesn't make me much of an expert. I can offer the following:
1. Even if they only fly a few feet in extreme cold, be sure you are protected within those few feet. Their stingers are not frozen. Also, the convenience of the cold keeping them from flying also would drastically reduce the core temperature at the center of the hive. The maintenance of that core temperature is what allows the bees to survive the winter and maintain some degree of bee replacement (albeit, very small during the cold weather).

2. If you can find an amateur beekeeper, he might be willing to try to take care of the bees and the honey at the same time. He would probably prefer to do it on a relatively warm day and use smoke to calm them rather than let them freeze trying to relcate on a cold day. That is your best opportunity to save the hive. If you don't get the queen bee. the bees will refuse to leave. or if the queen dies, they will die also. If you did manage to move her and the bees, you would still need to insure that enough honey and comb were moved also or they would starve very quickly. Even if you managed all of the above successfully, if the box in the woods is not well-located, the hive could become easy pickings for a few of the wild creatures that consider the bees and/or the honey as a treat.

3. Winter time is not the norm for trying to relocate a hive of wild bees. I think it would be a risky attempt even with tame ones, but at least the tame ones are in a hive construction that allows for locating the queen and an orderly way to transfer comb and honey.

All of the above is the amateur opinion. Somewhere in this knowledgeable bunch, we are bound to have someone who has dealt with bees on a larger scale. Good Luck! (If I were closer, I would give it a try just to see if I could save them. But cheap bees are like cheap tractors - you can only travel so far before the cost becomes more than the price.)

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