With this lovely sun the last few days I was able to go out and check on
my hives and give them a feed. With the cold this winter and the rain
the last few weeks, I had been dreading this. Of our six colonies we
lost two, better than the previous year where we lost our only one.
My daughter lost her split, I am sad about this as that had been one of
the gentlest colonies I had ever seen. We had planned on creating some
nucs from it this year, to try and pass on the gentle genetics. Funny
thing is that the split came from my daughter's cranky colony. When I
say cranky, I mean chase you across the pasture and bounce off your
veil. We will be requeening that hive soon, should have done it last
fall, actually. They look to have gone through their stores faster than
we thought they would, will have to be more vigilant next year.
The second colony we lost was one I thought was quite strong going into
winter. I will do a post mortem soon to see if I can figure out what
happened.
Of the four remaining, two look to be strong and the other two aren't quite as strong, but doing well.
I'm hoping the warm weather continues so I can go in and do a real
inspection soon. I'm itching to really get my hands in the hives.
