Now we are in 2017.
Shortly after New year I discovered already that the blue hive has died. I was very disappointed, because I had high hopes.
The green one in January when it got warm was weak, but alive. The red was doing fine and looked very good. Than the could March came. This was too much for the green hive. Also the green hive died and I had only one hieve surviving the winter of 2016/2017. So I had to buy new bees.
In April I got 3 new hives and I was back-up to 4 hives.
I had so much hope that this year would be one more step forward ( 3 strong hives into the winter) in my journey with the bees, but nature decided differently. So at least in April I was hoping to get a few pounds of honey and keep all 4 alive. So this was April thoughts of Rene, but you never know.
Everything was again different this year. Christiane by now has increased the variety of flowers and we have now more and more wild flowers blooming the whole year. The bees seems to like our yard now more and more. All four hives did very well ( for my standards) and grow fast into four strong and vibrant hives. They all produced honey and we had the best year ever. We harvest more than a 100 pounds from all 4 hives ( you can get this from one hive if everything goes perfect and the location is right). So in the end a step forward in my journey with the bees.
The bees seems to be healthy and happy. I am still a bit worried as I have had problems during the last 3 years with humidity at the apiary. The trees around create a bit too much shade I think. I am planning to move the apiary next year in spring by 30 to 50 feet. My hope is that this will be even better for the hives and solve the issue of humidity.
Today is the 23rd of December and we have freezing rain. So I hope the bees are doing good in there hives. I have insulated the hives from the outside like every year. This should help them to stay warm. Let’s see how the winter goes. These really cold days and nights so early in the winter, are not helping the bees. On the other side for nature it is good, as a strong and cold winter is also a selection process and only the healthiest animals and plants survive.