Long absence

A number of people have written and asked what is happening to my bees. I am sorry to not have given an updated before now my work has got in the way.

Since my last entry I have more, or less lost one hive due to laying workers. Regardless how I tried I cannot get rid of them. I think there are more then one. So I decided to let nature take its course. It is, however, still a mystery to me how, or when that particular queen died. I taook a quick look at it this morning there is still a few bees flying in an out of the hive and that is just about it.

Last winter was cold and many bees had perished. I did see a massive number of dead bees outside hive 1. It must be around the same time when the queen in hive 2 also died. What is happening now is that hive 1 is still active although with a much reduced number. I saw that queen bee twice so far and it seemed to be laying well. But, each time I inspected the hive the number remain on the low side unlike last season. This of course will affect honey production this year. Frankly I am not expecting too many jar this season, if any. I suppose this is how things are with live stock. Some time despite you best efforts things can still go wrong.