Apiary Upgrade

We made a couple up upgrades to be bee yard this weekend.  Started with some cedar chips under the electric fence wires so we don't have to keep trimming the grass there.  The bees spent most of today and yesterday staying warm in the hive.  The high today was 55 degrees F and the low was 45.  

Amazon had a decent deal on a Wireless IP camera so we picked one up and decided to make it the new "Bee Cam".  The camera isn't outdoor rated so we got creative and made an enclosure out of the top to an old stereo that was in the shed.  The camera is powered by a 12 v deep cycle battery and an inverter.  We are going to try to add a link to the camera on the blog.  The camera can pan and tilt and so far it appears to take decent pictures.

Tomorrow we are going to inspect both hives to see how the bees are doing.  Zander is hopeful that the bees will have capped the honey in the supers.  We plan to setup a screen tent temporarily behind the hives to show our weekend guests what the bees are doing without worrying about anyone getting stung.  The bees have also found the pool. We have a steady stream of bees coming to and from the pool now.

The BeeCam setup

Night in the apiary