Something Wicked This Way Comes

Wilma is approaching fast and could pose a major problem for my bees. For those of you that don't know, hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan last year destroyed about a third of the beehives here in florida and now, hurricane Wilma, could pose some problems for me and my bees. I was planning to extract about 60 pounds of honey this weekend from my top super but, now I'll have to let it stay there depending on how high the winds get here. The whole reason I'd stay out of the hives this weekend is that the longer I stay out, the more propolis gets applied to the sides, cover and joints. This propolis will hold the hive together through the wind and if I opened the hive I would end up getting rid of the propolis so the hive wouldn't have anything holding it together other than the weight of the wood. Given the national weather says that the hurricane will probably be a catagory 3 out of 5 when it makes landfall, the bees are going to need all the help they can get. So, I'll probably have to stay out of the hives this weekend.
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8 HOURS LATER...

Wilma is now a catagory 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour! It could make some major probems if it comes within one hundred miles of here. It's already more powerful than Charley, Francis, Ivan, Reta or Katrina. I just hope that it skims a cuban mountain range and slows down.

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