Yes it is tough on the bees in their hives, good to help them out. You are not normally in snow like this or the cold. We have the cold but less snow, just a few inches, 19° f today.
This will be a test on my insulated horizontal hives I built. 2 to 3 inches of insulation in the walls and on top. Hoping for the best.
@mggibb How cold has it been on the average for you over there mike?
Bob
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Hi all, my bees where gone this fall. The top 10 frame box completely full of honey, bottom box completely empty, no brood no larva, just empty comb. I’m guessing they swarmed. They made it strong through last winter, and seem good all summer.
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They all swarmed? They usally can’t because there are little nusery bees in the hive and others that don’t leave the hive until they are older. The Brood production must of stopped, possibly the loss of the queen and unable to replace her with a new queen cell. The new queen cells have to be no more than about three days old layer from the old queen for the workers to make queen cells to superseded the old queen. They left to join other hives to survive probably.
It is amazing the hive did not get robbed out by other bees. They can clean a hive out in days… good thing you found it soon enough to get the benefits of the honey.
I would just put some lemon grass and leave some of the comb in the hive and catch a new swarm next year using just one deep box. Put it six off the ground for better results. I use a tall ladder with aboard between the ladder legs and the hive sitting on the board. The ladder tied to a tree for support. Feral bees from your area are better then bees shipped from some where else.
Bob
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Hello Al. I was just thinking about tagging you, was wondering how your bees are.
Same here! I had 3 hives going in to winter. Two were rather weak, actualy they were a experiment l did with some longer frames. But the third was a strong healthy clasical hive with loads of honey. The other day was real warm and l expected a cleansing flight, but nothing. After peaking in l saw there was nothing but maybee 10 dead bees in each hive. Its a mistery to me.
What Bob sayd on frame spacing.
Same here. Hives with fixed comb are not allowed. But if bees happen to settle in a old hollowed out log laying in the woods l realy cant help 
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Except for some delicious honey from the wild hive the feral bees just happened to find. This mysteriously hollowed out log to their specifications for them to live in. With even with lemon balm and some comb in it for a welcoming gift. Place in the forest by who knows, aliens?
Bob
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One of the reasons responsible beekeepers moved away from straw skeps and hollow logs is because you had to destroy the colony to get at the bee hive products you are after. Not just greed, but simple economics and agricultural stewardship are reasons modular hives became quickly popular once the “bee space” thing was “discovered”. 
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Yes, but the bee spacing and cells were made larger then the natural smaller bees made. Man discovered I can manipulate them. Causing bees to grow larger, more honey more monies. This is the way of mankind’s productivity but it has a serious consequences with health of the bees and pestilence that fellows that plagues the bees.
Bob
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True Mike. On a industrial scale it makes no sence. On personal scale, breaking off a comb or two form each hive is not a problem for the bees, if they are strong
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The bees in the strongest colony have been coming out of the hive on sunny 50 plus degrees days lately. The other two colonies that share the same horizontal hive have not.
Both colonies are much small then the other one. We will see if the small colonies make it until flowers start blooming.
They both have honey and pollen resources. I think I might rotate the hive to receive more sun light. It is definitely colder where they are located in the orchard. It is much warmer behind on the south side of house by the popular trees. It surprised me when we had a bee come into the house. It was out searching.
Bob
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A little up date on Yehovah’s bees.
One colony did not make it through the winter out of the three.
It was the first colony that came to me. The queen must of died and they could not make a superseded cells. When I open the hive all I found was young bees maybe 250. They had plenty of honey and bee bread and uncapped nectar to feed on.
So the other two colonies are get the blessing they provided for them to live on and be prosperous bees.
The old dead hive looks like it is a lively hive to day but it is the colony next door cleaning it out. I brought 2 plates of comb and frames to the other hive behind the house.
The honey is really good, better then feeding them sugar water.
Bob
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that was something that I learned or had forgotten, from that russian guys video who was using the 5 gallon water bottles for hives. that you could pull out a frame or two, along with the workers and freshly laid eggs and they would make a new queen and start a new hive. I knew that would supercede, but I didn’t realize you could rear new queens like that.
I may have just forgotten because being up north, by the time you start doing that, the hive that you stole frames from would be weaker, and you have to do it early enough so the new colony could survive the winter which isn’t a big window of time.
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Yes the bees in the south have a better chance of survival because of the warmer weather to start making a new queen. But the eggs can not be any older then three days for the workers to do this. So if the queen stops laying eggs for three days or so and then dies the colony is doomed to die. Unless we introduce a new queen into the colony and they except her. She then will take the place of the old queen with her pheromones and the colony continues to live under her rule of life.
Another way is to combine the Queenless colony to another colony.
Bob
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Right. You basically have to watch the queen lays eggs in a frame, then kick her off that frame. 
Queens and the like 3lb colonies in a box were super expensive the last time I looked though. I thought about getting bees again, but really what I want is beeswax, and rearing queens would be kind of fun… I would get some honey, but I don’t need a lot. definitely not the 60lbs worth.
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I did not buy my bees I just set up three nuk hives with bare frames bee wax coated, some lemon grass inside to give a bee type pheromone sent.
Then I asked almighty God using His Name and by His Word Yeshua for Feral wild bees. They came.
I might have killed the queen when I was inspecting the hive last fall. Well God will bring more Feral bees I just have to ask in His Name and they will come. Anyone can do this, why because Almight God want us to know His Name is YEHOVAH and His Word Name is Yeshua. Simple fact.
YEHOVAH willing I will have a good income of His Bees in time. All with out costing a lot of monies.
Bob
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I might try that. I heard that about the lemongrass, but never ran into anyone who got it to work. I’m willing to spend that much. We sold all our gear a long time ago. With all the diseases, I don’t want to put a lot of money into it again.
I like honey, but it’s not my favorite. The beeswax would be nice to have, that stuff has gotten expensive. Rearing queens would be kind of fun just to do it.
Well there is a god. I may have used it up my prayers on the maple syrup. I was hoping for a super hard freeze so I wouldn’t have to boil as long. and wahla, a 5 gallon bucket of sap, turned into 1.5 gallons of sap as sweet as corn syrup and a huge chunk of discarded ice. probably saved 10 hours of boiling with my crappy setup. LOL
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A little up date on Yehovah bees. The two colonies are doing well. Lots of new smaller worker bees and drones. Just in the last month I would guess the colonies have double in numbers. I have 2 swarm nuks set up for any new farel bee swarms. I ask The YEHOVAH by His word Yeshua the Son to bring His bees to their new hives. Thank you Almighty God the Creator.
Bob
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I am getting back into beekeeping after a few years away, but I have a question. There used to be a website that had all types of plans for making beekeeping equipment, but I can not remember where, and a quick search was not fruitful. Does anyone remember this and where can I find it.
I had a weak split from last year that made it through the winter and is doing well. It was still a bit small, I did not give it much space, but it was very active this spring. I found 2 new queen cells yesterday and created 2 more splits. I am to visit some friends who want me to remove a colony from their house so I may end up with 4 hives soon.
Thanks, Kent
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Today Friday 5/20/22 is World Bee Day. Our pollinators do a lot for us.
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I might be late, but can I just put lemongrass in like a bucket, barrel or something? I don’t have frames or supers anymore and I am skeptical I will catch any. If I do, I can rearrange at some point in the future. I’m actually okay if they can make it through winter on their own, without intervention.
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Sean,
No need to try iffy containers, what do you do with your bees after you “have” them"? Read this first. Not too late!
Swarm Traps and Bait Hives | Natural Beekeeping (horizontalhive.com)
I think this guy has it all figured out (Dr. Leo)! 
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