December 22, 2012
I Lost A Colony
I had some chores to do today at the farm, such as re-secure parts of the tin roof above the shop. But since it was such a beautiful day I also decided to check on the colonies. I was very surprised and disappointed to find that one of the colonies had totally disappeared. There wasn't a singe live bee to be found and maybe a dozen dead bees laying around. Sadly, some of these bees froze to death with their heads in the honey (the main colony was gone so they couldn't collectively stay warm with the cluster). I don't have pictures at this time, but I will post some the next time a take a trip to the farm. I couldn't find any obvious signs of disease or distress. From within the brood box, all of the honey and, with few exceptions, the brood cells were cleaned out.
I will remove the honey super and harvest it for spring feeding, it has 8 full frames and 2 frames that are 1/2 full of honey. As I mentioned in a previous post I didn't take any surplus honey from the colonies this year. Apparently, I am now.
Bee Candy Time
What a sad day. I was hoping to dive into spring with 3 colonies ready to go and use one to create a new queen to replace the aging queen in Tom. Harry appears to be a very strong colony. I hope to keep it that way through winter. This means, it is time to make some bee candy. Last year I made some at about this time and placed it on top of the brood frames. It was interesting to monitor the consumption of the bee candy over time.
