New Beekeeping Year during "New Normal"
Well, quite a lot has changed in the six months since my last post. We had one of our least productive years for honey and it was largely due to our failure to split the hives early in the season. I also had surgery in the early fall which made preparing the hive for winter drop on the list of priorities. Still, Mr. Bee prepared the hive for winter on our patio in hopes that we could keep a closer eye on them. We waited and watched and checked often to see if we could hear that buzz inside the box. They made if for some time, but unfortunately, the hive starved out and we were looking at another, "opportunity to learn from out mistakes." From talking with a couple other keepers in the area, it sounds like it was not a banner year for a lot of people around here. Like in years past, we have picked ourselves up by the bootstraps and we ordered two new packages of bees. And then came the real time to persist... All of the beekeeping mistakes certainl...