This winter was quite mild and our first winter bee keeping. It seemed that we had food on both hives as we went into the winter, but the winter started earlier than we anticipated. Not sure if this lead to the loss of the hive since it appears that they were out of food or didn't move to the right spot for staying feed. Not sure if a harsher winter would have led to less bees eating as much and provided a different outcome. The temperature fluctuations over the winter would seem to make the bees more active then if they were simply to cluster together for weeks at a time. Regardless our losses are within the average for what people experience so we are going to work on raising more bees. We are going to simply try to increase our numbers and see what the season brings. Our goal is to grow from two hives to at least four with the possibility of eight hives in our current space. This isn't a lot but as a beginner it is enough to keep me busy and learning.
We also set out two swarm traps this spring, hoping that we might catch some swarms from hives that are in the area and build our stock from there. They were placed at two locations about a mile apart from each other where there are likely some feral colonies. There are quite a few old fruit trees and water available for bees, so we are hoping we get a swarm at each of them. The thought being that we keep them at one of those locations and build them up away from our main apiary in case of any disease or other unknowns. Thinking that we could move them back towards the end of the season if we have to. Regardless it will make for some interesting experiences this upcoming season. It is all so new and exciting I can't wait for the first dandelion's and clover to see what we are in for this summer.
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