With winter having peaked, most northern beekeepers will have wanted to check on their bees by mid-Fedbruary (we were impatient and opportunistic; we checked our hives in late January during an unusually warm two-day period). Here in northern Minnesota, we will likely have at least a month more of below freezing daytime temperatures. This means the bees in the hives will need to remain hunkered down in the hives until we get a little warm and the willows start to flower. Even with temperatures slightly more seasonable for us humans, this last stretch of winter is often the time when there a good chance of die-out in your hives.
As previously mentioned, we gathered requirements, purchased equipment, assembled equipment once it arrived, priced and sourced bees, ordered bees, and the list seems to go on from there. The bees have been ordered; six packages of Carniolans and two packages with Russian queens and Italian workers (the idea being the Italian workers will eventually be replaced with Russian workers). Brood boxes have arrived and have been assembled and stained with a nice mandarin orange color. All of these capital costs (business-speak for total cost required to bring a project into an operable and functional state) add up; as of this writing, each hive is having an average cost of about $208.00 (€ 153; £129). This amount will rise as we still need to purchase honey supers, bulk cane sugar for initial feeding, pollen patties, and as winter approaches, homasote board and insulation wrap and, possibly, more cane sugar. We are also relatively certain there will be other, small costs along the way.
