I know it's not recommended to open the hive in winter but we've suddenly had a lovely sunny day after all this endless cold so I couldn't resist having a quick look inside the hive, just to check what their food stores are like.
Already this is the most sign of life I've seen in weeks - a few bees are poking their noses out of the front entrance and some are even occasionally flying in and out! This was such a relief to see, at least they've survived so far.It's not nearly warm enough to do anything like a full inspection - that won't be possible until March or so. However, so long as I don't take too long there'll be no harm in having a quick look under the lid to check the supers.
It was a bit of a surprise to find this mouldy mildew under the lid on top of the crownboard but I suppose it is fairly humid conditions on top of the colony here. There's probably something I did wrong when closing up for winter as this does not look right, but I don't believe it's a very serious concern - I'll just have to remember to swap my spare crownboard over soon and give this one a scrub down.
It was quite a job cracking the seal on the crownboard. Everything looked much the same as it did last September in here - except no sign of any bees. I could hear them buzzing gently from the brood box though.
The honey in the supers hasn't been touched, it seems. One or two bees did pop up but went back down again straight away - maybe totally unaccustomed to all this daylight! I was surprised there was still so much honey here - I'd been assuming that they'd need it to overwinter but apparently they need it mostly for building up a huge army of workers in the early spring as soon as there is sufficient forage to find. Until then it's just the skeleton staff keeping the queen safe until the laying season begins again.I'd seen enough to put my mind at rest so far as their food supplies were concerned so I closed up the hive again.
As soon as I replaced the crownboard I could see that masses of bees scurried up into the super I'd just been looking at - it probably was just the unusual experience of daylight that was keeping them down below!
I hadn't checked the varroa floor for ages either so I took the opportunity to give that a quick clean too.
There was no pollen at all here of course but lots of wax dust. Not one single varroa mite and a few parts of dead bees - bits sometimes break off them on the mesh floor as the house bees drag any dead ones out of the front door. If it's possible they'll fly out with the dead bee and drop it away from the hive but if it's really cold they just throw them out of the front door, like I saw just after Christmas!
There were quite a few flying in and out of the front entrance now. I'd disturbed them enough for the sake of my own peace of mind so I reattached the straps and tied the chicken wire around again. I'll try to leave them undisturbed until spring now.
There's obviously been nothing to report for months now. The hive just looks like an empty box out there in the garden. I have occasionally caught a glimpse of something moving if I look directly into the front entrance but even that could just be my imagination! There was a day back in November when I saw hundreds of them flying in and out, but apart from that there's been no sign of life at all.