Hercubees Honey

They say in your third year of beekeeping is when you know enough to make your own decisions, but not enough to not fall victim to hubris. You can stretch the rules because you think you know the fundamentals, but there is always more you don’t know.

It’s a beautiful second day of spring today, and because life is throwing curve-balls my way, I was home early from work dealing with a burst pipe in the basement. As luck would have it, the afternoon was perfect to unwrap the hives and take a first look after the long winter. Winter is always tricky, because you don’t want to disturb the hives too much and break the cluster of bees. Bees maintain an internal hive temperature at around 90F, and opening the hive on a cold winter day could be deadly.

Throughout winter, I had gone in to feed the bees twice, on warmer days. They get raw sugar mixed with a little water to make a sugar brick, which they can quickly use as food. This is an emergency food source for them though – they would much prefer to eat stored honey that was left on the hives. When I had fed them during the winter, I guessed that my 5 strongest hives were doing well, and there were three others that had questionable activity.

After watching the activity at the front of the hives for the past few warm days, they all seemed to have made it. I know better now – most of that activity was robbing from the stronger hives.

On this beautiful spring day, I unwrapped my hives. I wanted to check on the three smallest hives that I suspected would not make it through the winter. I was right, they didn’t.

As I went through the other hives, I was surprised and saddened to see that two of my larger and stronger hives also did not make it. Upon inspection, it appears they froze in the hive. These hives came from the queen of my very first hive, a sweet, docile queen who would often show up during inspections and crawl around to give a show. Her daughters were calm, productive, and hygienic, everything you want in a colony of bees. You’re not supposed to get attached to your queens, but she was a good one. This loss hits different.

There’s no time to dwell on the losses, I’ll learn from the mistakes and do things differently.The bee yard looks a little different, but exciting things are coming this spring! The three remaining hives are bursting with bees. My spicy girls (also one of my original hives, and by far the most productive) are already asking for more space. Swarm season will soon be upon us, and that means these three hives will be making splits – I anticipate being up to 8 or more hives very soon.

Stay tuned for more exciting announcements (including the sale of Hercubees Honey) and changes to the apiary this spring! Have a bee-utiful day!