It is still super cold in many parts of the world right now, with record blizzards and snowfall. These videos may seem extreme to many of us living in less intense climates, but no matter where we live, we can still marvel at what so many bees and beekeepers around the world endure to bring fresh honey to the marketplace.
Let’s celebrate these beekeepers and their bees!
A BEE-utiful sight! Over 1000 hives overwintering in a shed in Canada, as reported by Canadian beekeeper Deerwoodian. Watch this 1:13-minute long video to find out how they keep the bees inside their hives…
Beekeeping at -30C can be worrisome, and the last thing you want to do is open up hives to see if the bees are okay because it will probably kill them all. That problem is solved with a thermal camera so you can see by thermal colors if your overwintering bees are doing well inside their hives. This 2:49-minute video by Chris Mercredi demonstrates how the large red thermal area shows his bees are just fine.
Beekeeper Robert Hamilton gives us a bees-eye-view of how honeybees survive a Canadian winter at -35C with this 2:09-minute long video showing how insulation packs are wrapped around these hives. This helps the bees through the freezing cold Canadian winter in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Canada.
In this 3:35-minute ReginaBeeTV video, Saskatchewan Beekeeper Louise Yates tells us which items she needs as she thinks through the process out loud. She wants to be sure she is safeguarding her hives from wind, cold and mice by wrapping her bees up snuggly and tight for a tough Saskatchewan winter.
For those of us enjoying warmer climates this winter, let's acknowledge the hardships these brave beekeepers and their bees face, and offer up a hot chocolate toast to them all. Here's hoping plenty of these bees make it through the icy times they are experiencing and deliver an abundance of honey this coming summer.
Happy weekend, and thank you for reading our blog posts!