I have to admit, I'm kind of bummed. Randy's bees didn't make it through the winter. He started with 3 hives 2 years ago - 2 swarms that he caught and 1 hive that he bought. We moved them last year because we were not going to be close enough for him to care for them where they had been kept - that's hard on a colony and they didn't produce as much as they had the year before.
Bees are fragile and struggling these days. Did you know we actually can legally use pesticides on crops that are known to kill bees? I don't know if they just didn't make enough honey, or were invaded by other pests, or what... but they didn't survive the winter.
Randy's okay with that, he sees it as a chance to start fresh, he wants to try a different style of hive and get some new swarms. I sure hope he gets some swarm calls.
Looking forward to our next colony and sweet honey this year!
That's too bad, I know he really enjoyed them! I hope he gets a good "colony"!
ReplyDeleteSusan