Poopy Hive!

Uh oh! We have a problem. The bees have been able to get out for "potty breaks" for the last 2-3 weeks and I've seen a lot of yellow snow and brown splotches around and on the hives. There's a lot more of the bee poo on Cam's hive (dark brown) over the last two days for some reason. I took a peek under the cover today and was unpleasantly surprised to see more droppings on the inside of the hive as well as an icky stinky smell. Yuck! Maybe my beginner's luck just ran out. It sounds like Cam's hive has dysentery. I'm not sure if it'll need some medication or if I can sit tight and hope that they shake it off. Wish me luck. I'll be doing a lot of research on this problem and watching the hive like a hawk over the next few weeks.
The good news is that Toby's hive seems to be doing fine. No poop sauce! Maybe a little less honey than Cam's but I have frames in the honey bank if I need it. It's still almost 100lbs though. I did give Toby's hive pollen patties and HBH last fall (because of the supersedure) so now I'm wondering if that did something to prevent the dysentery. It sure feels like I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve here.

Potty Break

Watch out for the yellow snow! It warmed up this week (close to 40) and we even saw the sun a little bit. The bees were happy to get a chance to fly out of their hives for potty breaks. I think they're been waiting for a while: the snow all around the bee yard is covered with yellow dots. Unfortunately there's a lot of bees on the snow too. I think some of the older ones get cold and can't make it back to the hive. It sure was nice to see them buzzing around after looking at two quiet hives for the last couple of months. There were so many bees that I didn't weigh the hives. I'll do that later when they're back inside.