hi Dave, I believe the news is not all bad, as explained below. > Dave D. Cawley | > University Of Scranton | > Scranton, Pennsylvania | > [log in to unmask] | > hive up so I gave it a > good whack on the side to see if I could get a noise > out of them. I heard > NOTHING. As a newbie beekeeper, I should be taking > that as a bad sign, right? Not necessarily, in WINTER bees may be pressed together in their little ball shaped cluster VERY tightly, and refuse to break loose to make some music for you, or for any old branch that happens to fall on top of the hive. This breaking loose is considered unhealthy during cold winter times, as it takes quite a while before a new cluster shape is arrived at between the 20,000 of them. During this slow process of cluster formation a lot of bees may fall pray to coldness, and stiffen up to immobility, which causes them to fall down and eventually die. This can cost the colony hundreds of bees per whack, and if it happens once too often, it may become a life-threatening situation for the entire colony ( because a certain minimum amount of bees is needed to keep the colony above freezing point. Please do not go around whacking hives too often. What you CAN try, though( but not on the hive you whacked before), is to put your ear against the wood of a hive, and knocking gently to see if you can hear anything. A soft hum from the outer bees in the cluster should suffice as sign of life; this cannot always be heard with your ears away from the wood. In SUMMER its an entirely different story, and I personally prefer to open a hive quickly then to evaluate its contents. Hope this helps.. sincerely, Hugo \|/ @ @ Hugo Veerkamp ----------oOO-(_)-OOo--------------------------------------------- | BEENET INTERNATIONAL | | E-mail : | mail : the Bee bbs | | [log in to unmask] P.O. BOX 51008 | | ( or press reply button) | 1007EA AMSTERDAM | | | The Netherlands | | Beenet : 240:31/0 | modem: +31 20 6764105 | | Fidonet: 2:2801/28 | voice: +31 20 6715663 | ------------------------------------------------------------------