Sunday, April 28, 2013

Blue Pollen

"Glory Of The Snow" (Chionodoxa Luciliae)  is flowering big time around here and the bees are all over it collecting blue pollen :)
 Blue Pollen collected in the bee leg baskets
 Solitary Bee collecting pollen
 Honey Bees collecting this blue candy :)
The Willow started blooming yet I saw only a few Bumble Bees on it and not even one single Honey Bee. Seems like Honey Bees prefer the Glory-Of-The-Snow.

Save the bees: British beekeepers protest outside Parliament to call for pesticide ban


LONDON - Scores of worried beekeepers — and a brace of fashionistas — have gathered outside Britain's Parliament in a bid to convince the government to back a ban on pesticides that have been blamed for a worrying drop in bee populations.

The demonstrators say they hope to influence Britain's vote next week on a proposed European Union ban on some pesticides.

Some wore beekeepers' protective costumes or bright bee-like stripes to underscore their point.

Researcher Robert Mitton said Friday there has been a "rapid decline" in bee population and diversity since the pesticides came into use in the 1990s.

Fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett delivered a petition supporting the ban to Prime Minister David Cameron's residence.

The British government has previously abstained from votes on the EU proposal.
Source
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood holds up a sign supporting bee-keepers as she joins a demonstration outside the Place of Westminster in support of apiarists and their campaign to show public opinion ahead of the European Commission vote on the proposal to ban bee-harming neonicotinoid pesticides, in London, Friday, April, 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Over 2 million Avaaz.org members voted for the ban on Neonicotinoids. Will Peterson ignore this? If so is this really Democracy?
 
Without Bees there will be no food. What then? Do we want to be the generation that killed life on Earth? If not then lets ban the Neonicotinoid killing pesticides! Why wait? Light up the darkness! Act NOW!

We Have Won !!! Germany votes for a ban on Neonicotinoids!


Berlin - In the debate over the protection of bees, Germany has indicated its willingness to support a partial ban of certain pesticide, before the crucial EU vote takes place on Monday April 29th.

"The federal government will agree to the neonicotinoids ban when voting on Monday in Brussels," said the spokesman of German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner (CSU).

The prerequisite for this is mainly "a clarification from the EU Commission that Germany, in the areas that go well beyond the European standard of protection, can retain a higher level of protection for bees."

The European Commission wants to ban the use of three neonicotinoids pesticides manufactured by the German company Bayer and other manufacturers like Syngenta, for the cultivation of corn, sunflower, canola, and cotton for two years, since these chemicals are suspected of causing bee deaths.

For the duration of the ban, the use of these pesticides for winter crops and plants that attract bees will not be allowed. The earlier vote of the EU Council of Ministers in March, produced a stalemate, partly because Germany abstained during that vote. The decisive vote for the EU will take place at the Appeals Committee on Monday April 29th.

German Agriculture Minister Aigner's spokesman explained that Germany abstained in March so that the current proposal of the European Commission could reassure the Federal Government "that it would not interfere with the existing high level of protection for bees in Germany". Germany had already significantly restricted the use of these controversial pesticides, called neonicotinoids, in 2009. These higher national standards, used in Germany, will not now be lowered as a result of EU legislation, and was guaranteed by the EU Commission.

Environmental organizations had expressed grave concern that Germany could block the EU proposal to ban the pesticides under pressure from the agricultural industry.

"The accusation that Germany would block the protection of bees, is completely absurd and baseless," replied Aigner's spokesman.
Source; original article written in German

Friday, April 26, 2013

Roundup, An Herbicide, Could Be Linked To Parkinson's, Cancer And Other Health Issues, Study Shows


April 25 (Reuters) - Heavy use of the world's most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson's, infertility and cancers, according to a new study.

The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy, said evidence indicates that residues of "glyphosate," the chief ingredient in Roundup weed killer, which is sprayed over millions of acres of crops, has been found in food.

Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Samsel is a former private environmental government contractor as well as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body," the study says.

We "have hit upon something very important that needs to be taken seriously and further investigated," Seneff said.

Environmentalists, consumer groups and plant scientists from several countries have warned that heavy use of glyphosate is causing problems for plants, people and animals.


The EPA is conducting a standard registration review of glyphosate and has set a deadline of 2015 for determining if glyphosate use should be limited. The study is among many comments submitted to the agency.

Monsanto is the developer of both Roundup herbicide and a suite of crops that are genetically altered to withstand being sprayed with the Roundup weed killer.

These biotech crops, including corn, soybeans, canola and sugarbeets, are planted on millions of acres in the United States annually. Farmers like them because they can spray Roundup weed killer directly on the crops to kill weeds in the fields without harming the crops.

Roundup is also popularly used on lawns, gardens and golf courses.

Monsanto and other leading industry experts have said for years that glyphosate is proven safe, and has a less damaging impact on the environment than other commonly used chemicals.

Jerry Steiner, Monsanto's executive vice president of sustainability, reiterated that in a recent interview when questioned about the study.

"We are very confident in the long track record that glyphosate has. It has been very, very extensively studied," he said.

Of the more than two dozen top herbicides on the market, glyphosate is the most popular. In 2007, as much as 185 million pounds of glyphosate was used by U.S. farmers, double the amount used six years ago, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data.
Source

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Che Guebee Log Hive

It was not my plan to make this log into a bee hive this year but as with many things in my life inspiration has the last word. So I went ahead and turned this log I've got last year into a vertical log hive. This log's walls are between 35 mm and 90 mm thick and is approx 137 liters in volume (70 cm tall).
Feral Honey Bee Colony is often found in hollow trees and it seems to be their main preference but they can be found in other hollow places like an attic, outdoor toilet, barrel, etc ...
Im hoping to get a feral swarm move into it this year.
I placed a solid floor onto the log so mice cant get in
placed a few oak branches across the log to support the comb
placed a 5 cm layer of pine wood shavings to mimic the hollow tree floor which is full of debris in which microorganisms and other beneficial insects can hide.
then I seeded the hive floor with rotten material found inside this tree to add microorganisms
then I sprinkled crushed propolis onto the wood shawings to create hive smell. Bees prefer to move into hollows which already housed bees in the past. I even used a few drops of Lemongrass Essential Oil as swarm lure which mimics their Nasonov pheromone.
I melted a few bees wax guides to add more hive smell to the log
bees can start building the comb on these planks. I can also replace those for top bars in case I want to transfer one of my old Queens into it from my kenya top bar hives
Big flat rock as the roof. Lets see whether it keeps the rain out of the hive.
Nails are there to stop the birds from nesting in the log. This top entrance hole is 40 mm in diameter.
Lets see if this log hive can attract a swarm :)

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Log hive and the flowering Spring

I've got a hollow log last year from a man who builds drums. He planned to build a bass drum out of this log but as he said it seems as it was waiting for me to get it since he had it for 2 years and never got around to turn it into a bass drum :)
I dont know if Im going to keep bees in it this year but will place it outdoors and hope for a swarm to move in.
I placed the hive on a huge flat rock and placed another one on top of the log to keep the rain out
Onion plants are the first one to flower in Spring
This photo was taken last week. The Hazel flowers have started to wither and I am worried that we will not have many hazel nuts this year because I havent see not even one Bee on them and I have looked and looked and looked ... I think the weather was still too cold for the bees yet Hazel was the first to bloom this Spring. Lets hope Im wrong.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Mykorrhiza is building a Kenya Top Bar Hive

Network Mykorrhiza decided to start keeping bees in horizontal Kenya-style Top Bar Hives. They have already built one in the city of Malmo and this new one will be placed in the Agriculture University of Alnarp. This is a HUGE step towards natural beekeeping in Sweden where most beekeepers keep bees in bee-unfriendly framed hives.
Naturally built top bar comb with various cell size, without the use of mono-cell wax foundation.
My smile sais it all :)

In top bar hives the bees are free to build their own comb cells size and are not limited to the frames. Top Bar Brood Comb is usually hanging free from the top bar and the sides are not attached to the walls (except the heavy honey comb) which allows bees to communicate with each other by vibration (when performing the waggle dance). It also gives freedom to bees to build any kind of cell size they feel is needed and they are allowed to have AS MANY DRONES as they feel necessary. The Queen is free to roam the whole hive. The colony is NOT FORCED to make lots of honey by placing extra supers on top of them. When opening the hive one doesn't remove the whole roof like one does in the conventional vertical hives, releasing the hive atmosphere. In top bar hives one opens only 2-3 top bars while the rest is closed. Bees hardly notice the beekeeper when performing an inspection.

Im so happy to see that people are willing to go the bee friendly way rather than focus on making huge amounts of honey :)
 we decided to build this hive from reused materials. We have found a few wooden pallets. It took us some time to dismantle them.Johanna and Marco working hard.
 Marco and me assembling the hive body. He was doing all the hard work I was just there to make the photo look pretty ;)
 The finished top bar hive body with a follower board in place and some top bars (we need to rip a few more top bars)
 the V-shape of the Kenya Top Bar Hive
and here is the finished Kenya Top Bar Hive with legs which make it more ergonomic. Even people with back problems can work this hive. Many old beekeeper stop keeping bees because their backs cant lift boxes used in vertical hives. According to Phil Chandler many women are attending his top bar hive courses and as they say to him "thanks god there is a hive which doesn't require heavy lifting".
We didnt have enough time today to finish the roof and we have to decide on the entrance placement. 
Marco standing proudly behind the hive. This Top Bar Hive will be his responsibility.
Im happy I could help Mykkorhiza to build this hive. I hope to see more of such work shops. 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Solitary Bee in my backyard

At first I thought that this is a Mason Bee but Im not sure we even have those in Sweden. I researched a bit more and found out that this is a Macropis europaea solitary bee.
 Unlike Honey Bees, this solitary bee is not spending energy in flying from one to another flower. Instead it slowly walks onto the next flower preserving energy. 
what a magnificent creature :)

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The First Forage Day in 2013

While working outdoors I heard a buzzing sound and I quickly went to search for the one making it; and there it was :) a Honey Bee ... few of them actually all over the Snow Drops in my backyard :) Oh, how gorgeous they are!
I even saw one Bumble Bee, 2 Butterflies, and one solitary bee (?).
Here is a video of a few bees;
and a few pics;




The bee season has most definitely begun! Soon enough I will be preparing the bait hives and even buy 2 new colonies. Cant wait

Friday, April 12, 2013

Private letters reveal Syngenta and Bayer's furious lobbying against EU measures to save bees


The crisis of dramatic bee population decline has been a top issue in media and political debate in Europe. A wide variety of culprits are under scrutiny, including certain parasites, viruses, pesticides and industrial agriculture. But new scientific evidence from British and French research institutions, published in Science in early 2012, suggests that neonicotinoids pesticides in particular might be one of the main drivers. Syngenta and Bayer, two companies producing these substances, are waging an all-out lobbying war against the proposed partial ban of these substances by the European Commission following EFSA's (European Food Safetey Authority) opinion warning of the risk they pose to bees. Will the pesticide lobby succeed in convincing Member States to vote no to a ban?

Continue reading ...

Thursday, April 11, 2013

A Queen moved into my hive

I was checking the insides of my empty top bar hives to see if all looks alright for the coming bee-season. I have found one follower board slightly deformed so I fixed that. Suddenly I saw an insect hiding just above the entrance under a top bar ... A Queen moved into my hive !!! But not a Honey Bee Queen!
This one was a Wasp Queen! 
It is amazing to realize that a vicious wasp nest is resting still in her abdomen. I removed her from this hive of course. We had a serious problem with Wasps last year. I had at least 6 strong nests under the roof of our house. The one which moved close to the main door I had to kill. This year I will be making a wasp trap from a big soda bottle. You can find how-to articles on the net.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Bien

Shooting stars
passing bright
In the hive
of Sun dance

Dripping down
the golden mead
Spreading the web
over the Earth

On their wings
flying high
Entering my mind
through the light

Wax knitting soft
into the skin
Warm breath seeping
out of the hole

Hexagon cells
filling the stomach
As One walking out
the Queen is piping

Honoring the Bien


Author: Interview with Michael Thiele
Issue: Summer 2008: Honeybees as wise messengers - Issue #52, Vol. 13


Michael Thiele grew up on a farm in a tiny village in central Germany. He has been deeply influenced by the German biodynamic beekeeping movement and now teaches classes on natural and holistic beekeeping in the United States. He worked for seven years as the beekeeper at Green Gulch Farm, a Zen center just north of San Francisco. He takes care of the hives at The Melissa Garden, a honeybee sanctuary––including several “alternative” hives. Melissa Garden utilizes biodynamic  methods and will seek Demeter certification. By extension, their beekeeper, Michael Thiele, is practicing biodynamic beekeeping methods according to the standards put forth by the international Demeter Association. Michael was interviewed over the phone by LILIPOH editor, Christy Korrow.

LILIPOH:  Please introduce us to the concept of the bien. What does it mean, and how is it related to beekeeping?

M. Thiele:  It’s interesting that, let’s say, maybe 150 years ago, before the introduction of modern beekeeping, beekeeping was not something special and not performed for any agro-industrial production.  The crops, so-called crops, were not really the focus of beekeeping.  It was just part of agriculture.  Part of regular life.  Culturally, the bees have always been important to humans.  But it was not about the crop itself.

Then, at a very interesting time, when modern beekeeping emerged, meaning the Langstroth hives (square boxes), some people started raising their voice and said “wait a moment.”  The tendency of the modern human mind is to approach the world through reduction and to look only at certain aspects of the bee hive. Due to this, the notion of the one-being was created ( Einwesen, in German) also called the Bien (bee in German is: Biene)

The concept of the bien reveals itself as an undividable entity.  As something which is beyond the sum of its small and many parts.  The modern equivalent to bien could be called super-organism.  More like the biological term for this.  A super-organism is something which goes beyond individual organisms, so this is what the beehive is.  It’s something which goes far beyond its individual parts.  So that is the basic understanding of bien.

LILIPOH:  If we are to approach the hive with this in mind, then it affects the choices we make on how to prepare their home, where to place them, and in general how we treat our bees.

M. Thiele:  Once you approach the honeybees with this kind of understanding, everything gets turned upside down, beginning with how we name the individual parts. For example, “worker bees.”  Calling them this is so limiting to the female bees, and I always feel it doesn’t do them justice. These names we have for bees were derived from our own intention, the paradigm with which we approached them.  So it is a worker bee when we take all the parts apart, and limit our understanding by calling the female bees, worker bees.

The same is true with the drones.  The word drone does not have a very good connotation. To use that name for the male bees makes it even more challenging to see the value in the drone.  In commercial beekeeping, there are almost no drones present in the hive.  Foundations are given, mostly plastic, which provide only smaller cells, making it almost impossible for the bien to create drones, male bees,  because they require larger cells.

We see these tens of thousands of single bees and we know, to some extent, what each of them do at different times in their life span.  But then there is  something which makes all 50,000 into one complex, huge being, which is far beyond each individual sub-unit.

The bien is one whole being.  Through the Bien we can experience the miracle, that life is. We may sense the communal, non hierarchical form of life, an attitude without greed, hate and dilusion. Deep within we may feel the extent of selfless serving to the whole – like Steiner says: the hive is permeated with love.

So the beauty of the concept of bien, is that it can open our minds and stretch our understanding, because it’s not only what we can see with our eyes, it’s something those 50,000 honeybees are creating together. It can  help humans to learn, to relearn, to remember the bigger picture of the underlying interconnectedness of everything.

This beautiful entity, the beehive, this super-organism, is only one-half of an even larger being––the flowering world. In being with the bees, we not only touch the bien, but we touch the entire flowering world.  Whatever is done to one, can be seen in the other. There is a beautiful message in this for us because it can remind us that we, too, are part of this one whole being of the earth, of the universe.  At the same time, the honeybees are so fragile.

LILIPOH:  It sounds as though the bees can teach us lessons about social life and how we treat each other.

M. Thiele:  Yes, Rudolf Steiner talked about how the hive is permeated by love in one of his lectures on honeybees, .  I think he really brings it all down to the essential message, to the essential understanding that the bien is so much about love.  So much about service, too.

In the beehive itself, everybody serves everybody. Even though there is a “queen bee,” she is not a queen in a human sense.  It is the bien that directs the life of the colony. In the hive, there are smaller cells and larger cells.  The larger ones are for the male bees, and the smaller ones are for the female bees. Depending on the size of the cell, the queen will lay a fertilized egg, which will be a female bee, or an unfertilized egg, which will be a male bee.  The cell size tells the queen what kind of egg to lay.

Well then, who decides which cell size to build?  Many bees are part of constructing one little cell, but the next cell to that cell, another set of bees are involved. So it’s not yet completely understood how all this information is passed. Scientists are trying to understand that, and it’s very complicated, and partially understood, but mainly people say “we don’t know.”

Prof. Juergen Tautz, an entomologist in Germany,started looking at the bee as a mammal, because he found so many parallels between mammals and the bees. Mammals raise their offspring by mother’s milk, by something out of the body of the mother.  That is very typical to mammals.  Well, with the bees, Tautz says that the nursing bees are feeding the little larvae “sister’s milk” because they are not feeding only pollen and nectar to the larvae, but they actually produce a kind of milk in their head-glands.

He also compares their reproduction. A hundred years ago we had ten or twelve children, but with other mammals, the numbers are quite small, compared to frogs, or other animals. With bees, you may think, “Wait a moment, there are 50,000 bees in there!” but, the offspring are swarms. My colony just swarmed in the last two weeks; they swarmed twice.  So they had two babies.

In conventional beekeeping, swarming is the last thing you want to happen for your bees, because, you lose bees, and you won’t have as much honey so there are so many swarm-suppression techniques in place.  It’s amazing.

LILIPOH:  Staying with the suggested metaphor, swarm suppression is a form of birth control, and we know what kinds of effects that has on women’s bodies, so it must certainly have an adverse effect on the bien.

M. Thiele:  Yes, swarming is a very powerful and necessary part of their wellbeing. To suppress it, effects the health of the bien.

The other similarity between mammals and bees is body temperature. Our’s is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and the bees keep the temperature of their colony around 95 degrees. It’s very close.

And then that brings us to the comb. Comb is basically an inner organ of the bien. It’s a communication organ, a nerve system, it’s the immune system. It’s storage for pollen and nectar, but also the place for the processing of nectar.

Nectar, as it comes from the flowers, needs to be processed. It has a high water-content, that the bees reduce down to under 20 percent.  And they add enzymes.

The comb also serves as the cradle and the womb. All the bees are raised in the comb. The bee itself spends about 90 percent of its life on the comb.  The comb is built according to gravity.

The comb is part of the immune system of the bien.  It’s covered with propolis.  Bees have collected propolis which has antibacterial and  anti-fungal properties. The rim is covered with propolis, and so are the insides of the cells.

It is a memory and communication system too.  Combs are marked with many scents from different flower essences and pollen.  Interesting studies were done with vibrations, and while the bee does its famous waggle dance, it vibrates at about 250 hertz. That vibration is transmitted by naturally built comb, so that it can be felt by other bees without having to be very close to the dancing bees. And the beauty is that the comb itself transmits vibration. The optimum expression of vibration is happening on warm wax comb at 250 hertz.

When I started beekeeping, I didn’t have a problem with changing frames within one hive,  moving frames from one side to the other, but this is now a big issue for me.  Do I want to move my heart out of my chest? I haven’t found a complete solution to that but it changes everything; it puts everything upside down.

And plus, the bien builds comb downwards.  Bees don’t build comb upward.  They start and build down toward the earth.  In conventional beekeeping, it’s always supered.  Every new box is put on top.  It’s so difficult for them, because the bees have to make this huge leap to go upward; they want to go down again.

So we don’t super, we lower. The addition goes underneath where the bees can just continue their natural movement and build the comb downwards. I feel this is their birthright to build natural comb. It’s a huge part of their being. In light of the  challenges the honeybees are facing, we can support the bees by giving them back to their birthright––allow them to build their own comb (many people do not know that conventional honey producers usually use plastic comb foundation).

That then brings us to those square boxes.  I grew up with this image of square boxes as being the normal natural house and environment for bees. One hundred and fifty years ago it was the skep, which corresponded more with the natural life-forces of the bees.

Sometimes I’m a little bit hesitant in saying that square bee boxes are not good anymore. Many good things can be done with those boxes.  But in the long run, I believe we have to change that.  That’s part of this big paradigm shift that needs to happen.  We need to change bee-housing. But, I think to say that you have to throw everything away, and start with something totally different is too much to change.  So that’s why, I say, it’s better to let them go with natural comb in those square boxes.

LILIPOH:  We have been in biodynamic agriculture for many years; you can’t just expect a chemical farmer to just go organic overnight, but it can happen gradually. Maybe they would just start using their cow manure as a first step and that would be a huge stride.  So I certainly agree with you; that makes a lot of sense.

M. Thiele:  When you look at the bees, when you look closely, you
will see it’s all about a round or oval shape: wild comb built on trees, the brood nest, the arrangement of honey, pollen and brood on the comb. The round form is so much more conducive to regulating warmth and humidity, whereas corners trap cold.

You want to try to come up with a design where the form would match the life-forces of the bees.  With the one exception––we would still be able to have frames in it.

There is a hive developed in Germany called Weissenseiferner Haengekorb, which literally means “hanging basket.”  It’s like a double-skep. This hive is placed higher than normal box hives. Bees naturally want to be six – eight feet above the ground.  They are not creatures of the earth. They are out of a different sphere––they belong to the to the air and fire element.  Bees only touch the ground to collect water or to die. Other than that, they are not touching the ground much.

LILIPOH:  Are you optimistic about the future of the honeybee?

M. Thiele: For eons, the earth has provided for us; we are her children. But now, with all the bee diseases and many other things happening on earth, it seems life has changed dramatically; we have to take on the role of being the steward.  That is our task, our duty.   It looks as if human beings have become essential for the survival of the honeybees.  Besides many,  many other species.

That makes me think of that Chinese character for danger. The character for danger contains two characters: challenge and opportunity.

For millennia, the bees were the messengers; for example the Greek Oracle of Delphi assumed the name of Queen Bee.

And it seems that when it comes to really important issues, the bees are there.  Again they are there. The vanishing of the bees is the wake-up call, they are shaking us.


Michael Thiele’s tips for non-beekeepers

• Do not buy anything with royal jelly. Royal jelly has a wonderful reputation, but when you look into how it’s produced, it’s terrible. Hives are decapitated, made queen-less, and robbed of the royal jelly over and over again, until the hive collapses and then they start all over again. It’s total exploitation.

• Buy local honey, and be willing to pay more for honey; honey is not cheap. Look at farmers markets and find out who your local beekeepers are and get to know them.

• The bien and the flowering world are one being. In order to support the bees, leave wild areas in your gardens, providing for honeybee nectar and pollen forage for pollinators. Farmers know about the need to provide enough flowers for pollinators. Don’t mow your lawn all the way, let some grasses and weeds flower, and create flowering spaces for bees in the garden. Visit www.themelissagarden.com for a complete listing of plants for honeybees.

I dare to say the Spring Is Here !!!

I feel its time for the Bee season to begin! I still see no Bumble Bees though ...
Snowdrops have at last awakened :)
Winter Aconite is blooming!
Stay tuned :) soon to get the bees for my newly built Top Bar Hives :))))

Friday, April 5, 2013

Large scale mono-crop agriculture and pesticides are killing our bees

Large scale mono-crop agriculture and pesticides are killing our bees all over the world.

This year marks the highest losses of honey bee populations in the U.S. Some of the country's biggest beekeepers have lost over 60%. Some say they won't be able to rebuild their numbers with such high losses and if these kinds of losses continue, the industry may only be able to sustain itself a few more years at most. WIth one in three bites of food we eat dependent on bees for pollination, will there be enough bees to pollinate the crops this year? The almond orchards in California are the first test where 85% of the world's almonds come from. Enter a fascinating world of the largest mass pollination event on earth.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Coating the Top Bar Hives with raw Linseed Oil

I will get 2 bee colonies at the beginning of May and the hives are not being coated yet. It takes a month for the raw Linseed oil to dry. The weather forecast sais sunny skies for the next couple of days with temperature around 8'Celsius. This is not that warm but I cant wait any longer so I coated 6 hives today.
 One can see the difference in color between the coated hive and the un-coated stand