The last 2 years with my bees have been very hard. I got new bees in the spring every year. Everything developed great during the summer. We could harvest honey and are able to sell. I thought this year is the year and I will finally be able to keep my bees again over the winter. My goal always was not needing to buy new ones from somewhere in the south every year. High hopes during the summer and then the winter brought me back to reality and I lost all my hives.
The experience of the first winter loss made me think, as the winter was very cold in January and then later in the year we had a lot of rain, if I should consider protecting my bees better from the elements. A hive, as I have it, is not the same as a hole in a tree, as the bees would use naturally in many cases. So last summer I started to build a new home for my bees. I want them better protected from the environment and perhaps this way I can increase the odds that my bees survive.
So I started again with 4 hives in 2019. Now I have mid-June and 3 have developed very well and doing very good. I suspect we will get honey from these 3.
The 4th one is growing, but very slowly, the queen is not very productive. I think these are not 100% healthy. I also found a nest of carpenter ants in the bottom board, this clearly did not help. So this is now removed and I hope this will help to get them going. I will know more in a week or two.
The goal for this year will be to get at least 2 or 3 hives through the winter. Let’ see what the rest of the year will have in the cards for me and my bees.