Bee Keeping Ain’t Nothin’ But Problem Solving

Bee keeping ain’t nothin’ but problem solving.  Boy ain’t that the truth?!? I’ve lost my bee hives at the GSC again.  To say I am baffled, puzzled, perplexed and disconcerted might be an understatement.  Sad too!

Look at them!  They seemed perfectly fine when I closed up the hives in late October, knowing winter was around the corner.  They had plenty of capped honey, had been treated for varroa mites, were strong and seemed normal.  2 hives – gone.  Just a few dead bees in each.

What could be killing our bees in North Carolina?  My contacts at the science center inform me that Duke University lost 12 hives this winter and UNC also lost their bee hives.  I wonder if they think bee keeping ain’t nothin’ but problem solving? I can only take a bit of solace in knowing that it appears to be a statewide epidemic and it’s not my lack of responsibility or care.  This however, is little consolation.

Click on “Bees in the Hive” below to watch how sweet and calm my bees are…errr…were. Protecting their hive but not in an aggressive manner at all.  I find them to be so interesting and delightful and yes, sweet!

Bees in the hive

We are contemplating several concepts on how to beat this problem.  One idea is to try Russian queens instead of Italian.  One is to order from a local guy who claims he’s bred queens who’s colonies overwinter better than others.  The vet at the center is going to take a few of the dead bees and run some autopsies to see if he can determine an exact cause.  I sure hope he can come up with an answer!

Should we keep 2 hives or go down to 1?  There are pros to having 2.  If you lose one you still have one.  If the beekeeper, me, needs to borrow some honey frames or brood frames to help one colony become stronger it’s possible with 2 hives.  That doesn’t happen often but I have taken from one strong hive to help a weaker one a few times in my 7 years of beekeeping.

Are you a fellow beekeeper reading this?  If you are please reach out by commenting below and tell me what your experience is this year as you begin to investigate your hives.

I’ll publish a story when we’ve come to a decision on how we will approach beekeeping 2018.  Please bee 🙂 sending good thoughts my way as we try and recover from losses 2 years in a row.  I am hoping that determination, persistence and love of bees will get us though.