Dear beekeepers
 
There was a topic "a temperature bees fly". I wanted to tell you my story but had no enough time then.
 
We had an unusual long and cold winter in 1995-96. The snow was thick (up to knees). On 24.02.96. I visited my bees in a country in a midday. An air temperature was minus 5 dg.C ( 23 dg. F ). Entirely cloudy, no sun seen. I found many bees laying on the snow dead. Some 20-30 where flying around a hive. Later I noticed some titmouses pecking my bees resting on a snow and refusing the dead ones. I saw an ocular evidence the little birds irritated my bees by "pecking" the hive. It's a confirmation of a warning in a beekeeping book. I scared the birds away and covered the hives entrances carefully with branches of a firtree. This helped.
 
After a week on 08.03.96 an air temperature was 0 dg.C ( 32 dg. F ). Midday, sunny without a cloud. Our bees of almost all hives had spring flying continuing more than 2 hours. The bees evacuated and a snow around became yellow. Some bees landed on a snow and sucked water drops on the snow. By the way, the titmouses were around again.
 
Such behaviour of my bees I saw first time. Such cases were in all Lithuania this winter. A hard wintering for bees.
 
Rimantas Zujus
Kaunas
LITHUANIA
 
e-mail : [log in to unmask]
 
Radioelectronics engineer, 52. 15 yrs beekeeper, 3 Carnicas in Dadant hives.