> >I would really like to find out how my hives are doing but I continue to
> wait for those free 50 degree days.
>

Tim, at those temperatures, we often work bees in California.  Today the
high was 46F--some bee flight.
I needed to collect some data, so we pulled the brood frames from 36
colonies, shook the bees off, measured the sq inches of brood with a grid,
and put them back together.

We often manipulate colonies during winter in preparation for almonds.  We
work fast and carefully, and the colonies don't appear to suffer.

Sometimes we are forced to make nucs or do other manipulations in cold
rain.  Best to move a tent cover over the hives--cold rain is very rough on
an open cluster.

Of course, I prefer warm days when bees are flying, but we don't always get
those when there is work that needs to be done!

Randy Oliver

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L