It’s supposed to be winter in North Carolina. Not so much this year. Two years ago the temperature was 3º, today it is almost 70º.
The bees are gathering pollen from somewhere. You can see where this bee has completely stuffed her pollen sacks with yellow pollen. She will take it just inside the hive where other bees will removed the pollen from her and store it, and this bee will be on her way to gather more.
Here’s an excuse for a great party: Data Privacy Day, on January 28!
Protect yourself from advertisers: Adblock Plus
Stop advertisers from tracking you: Ghostery
Update your Facebook settings: This link
Use a Virtual Private Network.
Start using a more-private email: something like ProtonMail
Use a Password Manager: 1Password
Protect your messaging, and message securely between iPhones and Android phones: Signal
Use 2-factor authentication: Google Authenticator is a good manager for 2FA
(Tips taken from https://flipboard.com/@flipboard/-privacy-shouldnt-be-the-price-of-progre/f-814da4c320%2Fqz.com)
Our bees made it through the worst of the winter (so far!). We had the longest below-freezing period on record for North Carolina, with night-time temps down to -4º one evening. Would the bees survive? We can’t open the hives to check as that would let in cold air.
Bees do not hibernate in winter. Instead, when the temp inside the hive drops to between 54º and 57º they form a bee cluster, and vibrate their flight muscles to generate warmth. That cluster moves around the inside of the hive eating reserve honey stores for food energy. At the center of the cluster it stays a balmy 92º!
Yesterday, the cold spell broke and went up to almost 60º outside, and all four of the hives showed they survived and were out foraging for water and food. Great news!
Yesterday we stacked almost a cord of freshly cut and split hardwood.
I had read in a homesteading book that it makes no difference whether stacked wood is covered from the weather, or just left stacked to air out without a cover.
That’s wrong. We have three wood stacks – that which was split in 2015, split in 2016, and now in 2017. The 2015 stack was covered across the top with a tarp and is in great shape: dry, and burns very well. The 2016 I left uncovered. Autumn leaves have blown in and rotted in the fall rains, and started to rot the wood. Lots of mushrooms growing on the wood, along with decomposed bark and leaves, and wet wood.
So, after unstacking, cleaning out the debris, and restacking, I think it will get a tarp just like the rest of the wood.
Frogpond Acres 