hope lost...the day my bee hive died.

Sometime between January 13th and February 1st my bees perished.  I called them the Delta Nu's like the little sorority of sisters they were.  The had kicked out the frat boys(drones) for the winter and hunkered down to try to make a go of it in this very cold New England winter.

The Delta Nu's had the deck stacked against them.  They superseded their original Queen in August.  RIP Queen Talulah and enter Queen Lucy.  Because they made their own queen and would not accept the Queen I tried to introduce (Queen Wilbanks) I had to wait them out and hope for the best.

Their numbers dropped but then Queen Lucy began laying eggs like gangbusters and the Delta Nu's seemed very happy.  I thought they might have a chance.

I didn't think they would make it through the polar vortex, but when they did I had new hope for their survival.

My son and I were excited to see the girls fly on Saturday as we were due for temps in the 40's.  When we saw no bees flying the first part of the day I knew something was wrong and this is what I found.

all dead, not an ounce of life left.

It was very sad, but it is nature and life. 

No guarantees.

The my hive was like the little hive that could until it couldn't.  

This has been a tough winter and I knew it would be a challenge for them to make it.

I have dusted my self and picked myself up.

I have ordered my packages of bees for the spring and will start a second hive too.

Hope springs eternal.

Bees of hope...

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the polar vortex up and left.

My man knew I was worried about my bees and the extreme cold.

He sent me this text

on that warm balmy day On January 13 when the temperature

crept up to 43 degrees.

I thought phew! We made it through.  Smooth sailing to spring thinking

we would not see temps that cold again. Well...think again.

It is freezing AGAIN.  Temps in the single digits.

I saw our state bee inspector(Ken) tonight at a lecture he gave at my kid's school.

We are very lucky that he lives a town over from us and is 

always very available for any help or mentoring.

He keeps hives near my house and I have been able to go check his hives with him.  

Just a wealth of information.

He has over 60 years experience keeping bees.

He has worked on the Harvard Bee Study, 

the USDA Bee Study and the NASA Bee Study.

It is fascinating to hear about the studies he is involved in.

When I started my hive last spring he told me to take some advice that new

beekeepers don't want to hear.  He told me to use 3 deep hive boxes.  

Rather than two deeps followed by a honey super.

The trick he explained will give me another deep box of frames with drawn our 

comb for expanding to a new hive.  Or if I have a swarm and I am lucky enough to catch it, I will have drawn frame all ready for a queen to lay eggs in.  

Drawn out deep frames are like gold.  Just think about the jump start a new hive will have with a few frames already fully drawn out and ready for the queen to lay her eggs in.

The trade off...as always things come with a trade off and that meant 

no honey harvest for me this year.

I left it all in the hive.  I actually had to spin out some frames in the fall.  We had a crazy

nectar flow in September and my hive became honey bound.  I was able to spin out the nectar and freeze it.  Then after the nectar flow stopped, 

I fed it back to them and they were very happy.

I am worried about my hive and honey stores with this cold.

The bees need energy to heat the cluster and 

that means they are eating a lot of their honey.

 I worried about going into my hive in this cold.  

Ken told me to get in there and to check for honey stores.

I know what I am looking for.  If the cluster is still low in the hive I still have honey as they will work their way up.

If the bees are high up in the hive, get a sugar patty in there.

I was a little overwhelmed with the things I was reading about sugar boards people make.  

It just seems complicated!

Ken assured me that they are not necessary, just make a sugar patty and that way I can get it closer to the cluster.  I have a spacer I can use if I need to so there will be clearance for the  sugar patty.

Mission this weekend...Get into that hive!

I will let you know how it all goes.

The Crawleys & the ill-fated reign of Queen Wilbanks

Oh Crawley family... I have missed you so.

I am just hooked and have been since the beginning.  Downton is just another world that I love to visit.  

I can't wait to see where this season takes us. 

Watching Downton last night reminded me of a little 'royal' drama I had this past August.  I began bee keeping this past year.  We went on vacation in August for 2 weeks.  Everything looked good before we left but there was succession afoot!

Long story short, it appeared that my bees tried to make a new queen and offed the old one, poor Queen Talulah(rest her tiny little bee soul).  However, offing Queen Talulah is fine if there is a new queen laying eggs, but there was no sign of a new queen and my hive was in danger of dwindling and not making it through the winter.

Enter Queen Wilbanks...

She was beautiful and as lovely as her name implies with a Tiffany blue dot on her back to mark her.  I was warned to keep her extra safe.  The worry was that there was a queen in the hive, although not being productive.  I was told I would know or should know pretty quick.  What my bees told me was that they were 'all set'.  They didn't need no hoity toity Queen Wilbanks coming in.  They made their own queen and she was going to start laying in her own sweet time, which of course she did... 2 days after I paid the $25 for Queen Wilbanks.  There were a few bees that just plunked down on that queen cage and tried to sting her.  It was fascinating and here is how it went down...

What this past year of beekeeping has taught me is to trust my instincts.  My bees were never aggressive but I noticed a hugh change with them once Queen Talulah was gone.  They were calm as could be.  When I would open the hive they were like, "Oh, Hi" and then just go about their business.  That is the sign of a happy hive and a hive is happy because they are happy with their queen.  

Queen Wilbanks was passed on to another bee keeper in need of a queen.  Now I have Queen Lucy.  A little scrappy and knows her roots.  She is a queen hailing from the great state of Massachusetts.  I am hopeful she will pull the girls through the winter and we will have a happy hive come spring.