It is now the first week of April and we have had a few days where the temperatures were at least above 50. This means that I was able to go and check on the bees and see how we did after a cold spell from the end of February throughout most of March. There were 11 colonies when we went into the Winter and it appeared that we had 11 colonies when we had a 50 plus degree day in February. However as I walked into the bee yard this month I had a sinking feeling it wasn't going to be a good day. During the drive out to the first yard I was thinking if there was 50% of the hives left I would be in good shape.
Well after opening a few hives I knew that I wasn't going to be in good shape. After starting the Winter with 11 hives I was down to three. This is a big loss for me this year, so I have been sorting through the hives trying to figure out what to do with all of the extra honey and empty combs. For the most part I have been putting full combs of honey back on the hives that are alive. My thinking is if they have a bad day or week of weather then they won't run out of resources.
The only downside to this is that the dandelions and trees are blooming so the nectar flow will be starting here shortly which means swarms if the hives feel congested. The good thing is if the weather starts to turn nice in May as I am hoping I should be able to do some increases and make some more bees. My goal now for this year is to see if I can get back to about 8 hives total. Focusing on learning to raise my own queens without simply doing walk away splits, but really being able to make some choices on how to make increases. My end goal is to get to about 20 hives and kind of stay at that number since that would be manageable from both a space and time commitment for me. I will hopefully have a few more pictures and things to post in the near future.
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