Up to Speed
In my last blog entry in July of last year, we were in the swing of the season and evaluating how the bees were handling themselves with the nectar flow. I will try to sum up the details of the end of the season and what surprised us this winter. We had two hives in 2018 that we purchased from a different source than we have purchased them from in the past. The hive that was doing poorly (in my opinion) was the most aggressive colony we had ever had. One even managed to sting through my leather glove! I also felt that it was the least hygienic hive that we had. It was low-producing and although we managed to help the colony get established with its own laying queen, we were unable to winter it. The hive that was initially doing well continued to do well. The only issue we ran into was with the queen excluder. This is a layer that beekeepers can use in a hive to keep the queen in the area where she lays eggs (the brood) and away from the honey frames. We haven’t used an excluder ...