I know that every beekeeper goes through something like this, but it really doesn’t make it any easier. Fine, I will mark it as experience, but I don’t have like it. A few days ago Rachael went to feed both of our bee colonies, and check on how they were doing with this cold weather and rain we have been experiencing. What she found, in the colony we had purchased, was that there has been a mass die off of bees in the top feeder. They aren’t starving because we have been giving them food, so I am not sure what it going on. As you can see in the picture there are hundreds of dead bees piled up. It is pretty heartbreaking. The hive is still alive, and those that are still alive were pretty aggressive. Normally they are pretty tame, so this was unusual for them. With the weather turning soon we won’t be able to go in and check on them again for a while. Now remember this is our first year, and this may be normal, but our other colony, that was a caught swarm, does not seem to have this mass die off. Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby, but not you would really benefit having a mentor with. We are going to start by asking a wonderful beekeeper Rachael met selling his honey at the farmers market what his thoughts are and go from there.
In the meantime I am going to post a few great recipes I found over the holidays that sound delicious! Take care!
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