Start of a New Beekeeping Year

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.