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bait hives

How Wild Bees Winter in Insulated Horizontal Hives

A January storm dumped five inches of snow on us this weekend and I wondered how the swarms of wild bees I’d caught over the last few years were faring. Here’s what I found.

Snow-covered homestead in western North Carolina the morning after a January storm
The scene of the snow: our homestead the day after the storm.

The bees live in five insulated horizontal hives that I built in our hay barn and then placed around our property. Unlike the standard Langstroth hives most beekeepers use, these heavily insulated horizontal hives… Continue reading →