Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Deadout

Oh well, I've done it again.  As of Jan 28th I'm officially bee-less.   Only 2 living bees and one isn't a queen.  Taking them to the basement only prolonged the inevitable I guess.  I'm thinking that they died of thirst, but who knows.  They had been dwindling since the fall but I could not pinpoint the reason, but now I think the queen was a failure from the beginning as the buildup of the hive never really happened.  Afternoons would only see 50-60 new bees out for their test flights.  Oh well,  ordered new stock from upstate, will be here in May.  Going to try a very hygenic cross this time.  I'm also going to set out a bee trap this spring, if that works I'll have a couple of hives going.  They say that with two hives you might save one good one, lets hope.  I have 2 extra empty hives just waiting, one being a traditional top bar.

From the hive I gathered about 25 Lbs of honey, very rich and dark.  Plan on making some strawberry mead with it.  have made wine in the past, but mead will be the first.  I tasted some from a friend in Minnesota last fall and it was supperb.

Heading up to Olive for a bee seminar on the 11th of Feb, should be fun to see how everyone else is making out.

Last blog now till the spring.  Later