Bee Update

With lingering sadness, I must tell you that our bees didn’t survive over winter. In February, when the hive entrance was still even on sunny days my heart sank, but I held on to hope. By March I was certain and we disassembled the hive to find just a few hundreds of dead bees and quite a lot of honey. (Below: a frame full of capped honey and a few dead bees).

What killed them will forever be a mystery, although we have theories, of course. For certain there was a cozy little mouse den in the hive, but he could have moved in after the bees expired/left. To prevent any further damage to our equipment and to the honey stores, we moved everything to the basement.

In April, Robert and I started the New Mexico Beekeeper’s Association Certification Program. We will spend about one Saturday a month in Albuquerque learning from people with decades of experience and an abundance of appreciation for bees. The first class was entertaining and informative. As part of this program we also have to provide 20 hours of service. That starts next weekend at the Governor’s “Spring Fling” for foster children and their guardianship families. The Governor is apparently fond of bees and invited the NM Beeks to exhibit at the event. We will be there in support, answering kids questions and giving them tours of the demonstration hives that will be on hand.

Last month we also extracted what honey we could our of the old hive. April is not an ideal month to do this as cold honey is slow to move. After hours of cranking the extractor, we had 60 ounces of delicious sweetness bottled. And there’s still a little more slowly making its way through a sieve. (Below: a photo of Robert cranking the extractor. We eventually moved the operation over to the window where sunshine provided a little warmth to speed things up a tiny bit.)

And finally, our happiest news. A little over a week ago we arranged to pick up our new bees in the form of a couple of “nucs”, basically a mini hive of five frames to be installed into larger hive boxes. A little like expectant parents we’ve been preparing space and strategizing about what arrangements will give our wards the best opportunity to thrive. Tonight they came home with us. (Below: two nucs on top of the hive boxes that will be their homes longer-term, starting tomorrow. I could feel the heat of the hive coming from the opening and it would be a crime to steal that from them just as dusk settled.)