Move day

I have recently mentioned a concern about the positioning of the hives, at least in winter. This morning it seemed - to me - clear something had to be done. We had about 1" of snow last night, then it got cold and this morning at sunrise, the hives got the early rays which probably melted any condensation on the walls before any real warmth had got through.

As MrB has indirectly indicated; I need to make some decisions myself (and he's right) and so after an hour of internet research, I think I had an idea of what I could do and set to work moving the girls.

Their new position is in the garden, under spruce trees & next to Luna's dog house. I removed the "dead" hive but have the contents to perhaps use in spring to give the bees a good start. There's loads of honey stored in the combs.

In addition, wrapped the hives in tar paper which I happened to have. Saw this a couple of times on the web. It's not there because of the cold but to absorb any sun rays which the light coloured wood reflects. It's an experiment and I haven't fixed the paper. The hives are stightly tilted forwards to allow water to run out the door and the roof is slightly tilted towards the back, away from the entrances.

In the Blip one can see the hives in the middle, dog house left and a wood pile right. The entrance is facing south and is fully protected against north & east winds. The large white area in the foreground is snow and one can see that through the tree cover and the sun on the grass/tree needles, the snow quickly melted. The photo was taken at 17:00, sunset was at 16:30

I think when spring comes (it's going to be a great one) they will be moved back to the forest edge. Safer for those hanging up washing, hens picking and sunbathing in their favorite spot just in front of the hives and for the dogs - they haven't yet worked out that bees aren't flys!