Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A Sad Day in the Bee Yard

This past Sunday, we spent the afternoon harvesting honey. Four gallons and one quart.  But it was not a happy day.  While we are very glad for the honey, one is not supposed to be harvesting honey in March.  We found ourselves in the throes of this sticky task because all of our bees are dead.


This weekend was wonderfully warm, climbing into the upper 60's so it was a prime time to inspect our five hives.  Jamey was already concerned because on previous warmer days he hadn't seen as much activity at the hives as he thought he should.  Sure enough, after each hive roof was lifted off, the verdict was the same- they were all dead.


In each hive, the bee cluster was a mere inch or two away from honey but somehow they were unable to find it.  Robber bees from other local bee yards had found the honey, unguarded, and were already helping themselves.


I sent a quick message to our experienced beekeeper friends asking if they could put us on the list for more bees this spring only to hear back that they experienced devastating losses this spring- 79 of their hives dead.  They, too, can only guess as to what happened.  A combination of weather patterns and an increase of spraying along their road were two of their educated guesses.  You can read all about how herbicides and insecticides seem to be causing all kinds of detriments for honey bees by looking elsewhere online (here is a good place to start).  I, honestly, don't feel like getting into all that now.



I'm just sad.  Sad for our beekeeping friends and others like them who have invested so much time and resources into providing nutritious local honey for our community only to suffer such terrible losses.  We can only imagine what that must feel like.  We're just hobbyists.  For them, it's part of their livelihood.


New packages of bees and nucs might be hard to come by this spring if many others are experiencing similar losses in our area.  If we can, we'll try to start again.  We have equipment and some basic knowledge (although our knowledge doesn't feel very useful in times like these) so much of our investment is still intact.  We also have the gift of beautiful, sweet honey that our bees left for us.


We're also making available the remaining sticky goodness left on the strained honeycomb to neighboring bee colonies.  Maybe some of them will return the favor and come swarm into one of our empty hives this spring.




The term bittersweet has never described a day so perfectly.
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18 comments:

  1. Oh that is so sad. I hope you can find more bees this spring. A reminder to us of the delicate balance of man and nature.

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  2. So sorry to hear about this. What a loss. Hoping that you can find some new bees to start up the hives once again.

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  3. My first year beekeeping I decided to let the bees keep all their honey to get through the winter. In February on a nice sunny day my 2 hives were robbed by aggressive wild bees. They murdered all my bees and devoured the honey. My comb was totally destroyed and I was heart broken. All the time and money spent was wasted. I waited a whole year to start over again with only one nuc of bees. This hive turned out to be extremely fertile and strong. I got 12 pints of honey of off it and left plenty for the bees. No robbing so far. All this to say...don't give up! Try again! I think its so worth all the heartache and hard work.

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  4. Oh, I'm so sad and so very sorry. My heart hurts for your heart. I'm praying right now. I'm so so sorry.

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  5. oh no! This makes me so sad.

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  6. We lost our bees in the Fall. It was really disappointing, so I know how you feel. I don't know it the wasps chased them off, or if they were cleaning up the hive. I don't know if we will get bee's again.
    Kimberly

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  7. Oh dear. That is sad. When people say that the harsh winter is "at least killing the bugs," my response is usually something along the lines of, "even the good ones." Keep at it. There is a need for hobbyist bee keepers. Also, I'm with you one the chemicals issue. On a brighter note, your honey does look delicious.

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  8. This is going to be our first year with bees. Have ordered 3 nucs and are anxiously awaiting them. I am soooo sorry for your hive loss!

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  9. Such a bummer! :(

    We went through the very same thing only yesterday! My husband pulled our two hives apart only to find them full of honey, and lots of dead bees. We're brand new to this ourselves and so have no idea what happened yet. There was mold on our dead bees. The bees were all in a round cluster, like I think they do through winter (?) Anyway, I'm sorry you lost your bees, and also that so many others in your area did! That's terrible news.
    Aubrey

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  10. I am so sorry this happened....I just read today about Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, etc. selling plants drenched in pesticides killing the very bees they attract....all along we think we're doing something right to attract to bees only to be unknowingly killing them. I'm trying to start all my veggies and flowers from seed this year just to avoid this....my only regret is not all my seed is organic, so I can't be confident my seeds aren't treated. This has to stop. God bless those little workers for the harvest they left you. Keep on keeping on! Hugs, Janet

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  11. If the dead bees are in a cluster and there is still honey in the hive, the bees froze to death over the winter. If there is no honey in the hive, they starved to death.

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    1. Huh, interesting. We had such a mild winter here this winter, too! And we purchased all our hives and equipment from a professional in the area. Yet there is tons of honey, and all the bees dead in a cluster.

      Well, back to the drawing board for us.

      :)
      Aubrey

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    2. All our bees were clustered (dead) right near honey. They can survive colder temps than what we had so this leads me to believe that the cluster wasn't big/strong enough to keep them warm...so did they dwindle/start dying out late in the fall? Some of the clusters did seem to be on the smaller side. But! That doesn't explain the dead, Lang cluster- that cluster was HUGE- the number of dead bees was nauseating. In that case, they were just below the honey super (which was full of honey) but for some reason didn't know to move up into it (no queen excluder). It's hard to know what lessons to take from all this other than making sure we have strong colonies with plenty of stores heading into winter.

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    3. There's some complicated equation about the bees being in danger of getting cut off from the honey, but also if the cluster is around too much honey (versus brood, I think) during a very cold snap, they can get too cold because it is harder to keep warm around the honey. or something like that? The fact that all your hives perished though, seems to point to an environmental event.

      The only thing i've really learned about beekeeping in all my years beekeeping is to trust the bees. I try to addle with them as little as possible. I just peeked in my hive today. Just a little peek. It looked sparse around the entrance and I was worried, but there were a bunch at the top -- the VERY top. I'm worried that if another winter blast blows through they will die here at the very end of this intense winter. But we will see. ... Crocuses just opened today and the first trees can't be far behind so there is a glimmer of hope.

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  12. SO sorry this happened to your bees!!! Strange that it seems to be an epidemic. Big hugs, Camille

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  13. Jane, I am so sorry to hear about about your bees. We have bees in our plans in the next couple of years and seems there is so much to learn.

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  14. The bees are one of my favorite parts of your blog. Very saddened to hear of your loss, but I hope you'll be able to start again.

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