I’m bummed tonight…... :( :( :( :( :( I think I'll just turn off the brain and watch Gold Rush to make my problems look small.
The bees in my original yard are doing great, but my farm girls aren’t doing so well. :( I’ve already suffered about 10 losses and winter has just barely begun! The losses were all in Nucs and mating nucs. I’ve got a mishmash of designs I’m experimenting with so I’ve got bees in all sorts of configurations. Most are in polystyrene boxes, but some are in wood boxes, some have opened screened bottoms, some have top entrances, some have bottoms, some have both, some have telescoping covers, some don’t.
I was lazy (actually too busy, but I figure y'all might believe lazy more ;)) and left my migratory tops on my mating nucs. That was a disaster. This is the 2nd time I’ve made this mistake. The result is a foam box full of rain water and ice. :( A drain hole might have been a good idea too :-\ I have a few nucs with open screened bottoms that froze to death already. Not doing that again either.
It's always pretty amazing when you have a dead out in a foam box. Without living bees in there to make heat, these foam boxes become ice chests! It was nearly 50F/10C outside and about 5pm when I was checking my nucs, and there was still ice in them. :shock: