Snug as a bug

I got the straw, the farmer was nice to give me some cheaper stuff since I told him it was for the hives. So I was able to get it for 4.00 a pale instead of 5.00. Just FYI, the feed store and TSC wanted around 8.00 a pale. Holy Cow!
So I stacked around the three stronger hives, the hives that I thought were dead, I went and peaked inside and to my surprise two out of three have live bees in them. Woohoo!!!! So now the dilemma is I don't have enough straw. I had some old nasty pales laying out year, so I used the tractor and freed them from the frozen ground. All I needed to do was build a wind break. So they will have to do for now. Here are some pics of hives, snug as bug in straw. (And a picture of the cool tractor, I just love my Botar!)

The danger ranger needs to be bigger, so I can haul more!

Snug has a bug in a rug. These are the hives that overwintered last year, using the same technique.

The two small hives are swarms I caught last year, the middle one is dead, the one on the right was a package that I purchased. Both the end hives the bees were at the top, I thought the were all dead. I didn't keep them open to inspect, I just peeked under the outer cover and saw them threw the hole on the inner cover and closed them up real quick. So I don't know how strong they are. I need to purchase some fondant so next time its a little warmer I can put some on the frames. I need a few more bales of straw for them also. Now I need more straw for coops too.