The Start of Spring Was...
A few days ago, I saw a post from the Minnesota DNR that explained how April in Minnesota was the gloomiest on record in the last 60 years (in regards to solar radiation). Having had snow on our Bee Day, followed by freezing temps for days on end, more snow, and rain, it made a difficult start to the beekeeping season. There was little chance to inspect, but we were able to see that the queens in each of our hives were laying eggs and the workers were starting to store up pollen on the days that were warm enough to fly. We had a good chat one evening about how to manage mite treatment. This would likely be the most challenging aspect of our season, so it felt good to have a tentative plan and have it off of our to-do list before the evening was over. Then, we woke up to the sound of a piece of wood dropping on our back patio at 3 am. The sound had been a hive lid. Imagine our surprise when our patio light revealed a medium-sized black bear was making a major feast of our bees and ...