October 11 Winter Storm, we are on “Wait Out Mode”

00:00 - it's October 11th and we have fallen 00:02 - into this terrific early winter storm I 00:07 - don't remember a storm ever hitting us 00:10 - this severely this early before all the 00:13 - conditions kind of lined up we were over 00:17 - at the cattle farm trying to feed the 00:19 - cattle and the whole feedlot is 00:23 - saturated and now it has a foot and a 00:25 - half of snow over top three foot banks 00:29 - all across the yard it's just a complete 00:32 - gong show we can't get the tractors 00:34 - through because we're getting stuck the 00:36 - cattle are hungry but they're kind of 00:38 - just standing there in the weather on 00:41 - weighted out mode we can't even get down 00:44 - the damn road with the tractor cuz it's 00:45 - so so heavy the snow so heavy just can't 00:48 - keep the wheels on we can't keep the 00:50 - tractor on the road it's just absolutely 00:52 - crazy most of our animals are out in 00:56 - pasture right now so hopefully they've 00:58 - found shelter and hunker down and my 01:03 - hives I'm kind of concerned a little bit 01:04 - both my hives being buried in the snow 01:07 - but I rest assure that these colonies 01:10 - are strong and maybe getting covered 01:14 - over with snow is maybe a good thing 01:16 - just to keep them out of this terrible 01:18 - wind it's 80 click winds today and it's 01:23 - blowing around these ice pellets it's 01:25 - almost like you're getting sand blasted 01:26 - all morning it's just absolutely 01:28 - ridiculous so once I can travel the 01:33 - roads I'll have to get out and just take 01:35 - a peek to see how the colonies are doing 01:37 - I don't want them to suffocate but I'm 01:39 - certain that they're warm enough that 01:41 - they allow able to you know melt the 01:44 - entrance and you know not ice up and 01:46 - it's not so much the snow cover but it's 01:49 - the ice up around the hives that I'm 01:52 - concerned about the male's suffocate 01:54 - because one disadvantage of what I do 01:56 - with my honey operation is I will have 02:00 - that pliable inner cover and I have that 02:02 - sealed top so I don't have any sort of 02:06 - ventilation or access out that top and 02:08 - do that very purposely to help manage 02:12 - terrible winds like this and just to 02:14 - help increase the moisture within the 02:16 - colony as I bring them inside but when 02:19 - they're outside and the entrances get 02:20 - iced over you know it causes a little 02:26 - bit of a risk bit of a concern so I'll 02:29 - just have to wait out the storm and then 02:31 - head out to the yards and see what's up 02:34 - rest assured they're strong so they 02:37 - should build a manage itself so I have 02:40 - these four five you have five little 02:43 - colonies here we're making around with 02:45 - the feed before the storm hit it was 02:48 - Thursday and along the side edge of one 02:52 - of our mating yards we found these five 02:54 - little colonies we must have forgot so 02:58 - we went took a peek into them and 03:00 - they're you know there's managing 03:02 - themselves but they were right empty of 03:04 - feed like they were pretty late so we 03:07 - went with pails and we dropped some 03:08 - pails on them they instantly started 03:09 - taking syrup down so they're taking 03:14 - syrup down as we speak right now and 03:18 - it's probably not good for him to pack 03:20 - away stores without I doubt they'll get 03:23 - a chance to cure it but it'll be a nice 03:25 - little experiment to see what's going on 03:26 - and see how they can manage their food 03:29 - reserves and the moisture within their 03:32 - colonies so I'll just go over there 03:34 - we'll take a little peek they're 03:36 - actively feeding on the pails is really 03:37 - cool and these little guys I mean 03:42 - they're not a full nuke size they're 03:45 - smaller because they plug themselves 03:50 - over with honey but then through the 03:51 - fall they've consumed it all wearing 03:53 - that winter brood nest and now we're 03:55 - trying to pack on the the winter weight 03:57 - before weather sets in to where we have 04:00 - to move them inside kind of like the 04:04 - weather today weather so let's 04:08 - go take a peek 04:17 - you can see the entrances are icing over 04:21 - great icing over that's what I'm afraid 04:27 - of 04:29 - but they ice isn't that thick because of 04:32 - the warmth within the colony I'm just 04:34 - gonna make sure that they don't freeze 04:36 - not freeze we got to make sure they 04:38 - don't suffocate so I'm gonna have to 04:41 - make around my yards after the storm 04:43 - passes just to look at the ice here 04:47 - warmth off the entrance fears building 04:51 - you just weigh the front see here - 05:02 - [Applause] 05:05 - these guys are actively feeding suppose 05:16 - zero degrees right now these pails are 05:21 - just about done well film up again 05:23 - tomorrow and this is what I suspect most 05:27 - my yards are gonna look like me buried 05:31 - so hopefully you know if they get buried 05:34 - in snow 05:36 - we will guess just assume the snow is 05:41 - gonna protect the colonies from this 05:44 - terrible wind hopefully the hives are 05:49 - able to you know melt access out their 05:53 - front so they don't suffocate as soon as 05:56 - we're able to get out travel the roads 05:59 - you know we're gonna walk out to the 06:00 - yards and just make sure that they're 06:02 - not covered up in the front just make 06:05 - sure they're breathing 06:06 - okay and kind of like our cattle I guess 06:15 - we all we can do is just kind of wait it 06:17 - out so we're way to no code right now