It happened. Failure. Not my first, certainly not my last. My bees died. They were alive in February, not alive in March. I went into the hive when it was warmer weather at the end of March. There were many dead bees at the bottom, some dead bees with their heads in comb looking for food. The hive was heavy with honey. The queen was dead at the top, alone. Last woman standing. The fondant I added to supplement their food was hard as a rock, completely frozen. A few bees were frozen to it. The pollen patty was there as well - untouched.
The failure was bitter but motivating. I signed up for and just completed an 8 week course on beekeeping through BANV (Beekeepers of Northern Virginia). Possibly the single best thing I learned was that 2012 was a tough year for everyone's bees. The drought meant you had to feed all year long (which I did) and the erratic weather in March meant many hives broke their cluster when the weather warmed, and then died when it froze again and the snow came. This is good, I think to myself. It was not my fault.
Lessons learned for next winter:
* do not use fondant. use sugar cakes instead and wrap in newspaper to absorb the moisture.
* consider overwintering in a nuc box (apparently the hives in nuc boxes had a higher rate of survival, at least locally).
* use a mouse guard.
* use a robbing screen as of August, especially if we have drought. (I don't know if robbing was a problem last year...)
I have placed an order for a nuc hive (an established have that comes in a smaller box) as opposed to package bees (which come in the mail). Last year I used European packaged bees from Georgia. This year I would like to use local bees (possibly Russians) in a nuc hive. The downside is that nucs are not typically ready until mid to late May. So at the moment, I sit and wait.
Failure also has the effect of making you reevaluate your goals. Initially, I had day dreams about harvesting my honey and delivering it to friends in family cloaked in the glory of my successful and earthy hobby. No more. My short term goal is to have a hive survive winter. Contribute to local pollinators. Get better at handling them, recognizing and addressing problems. My long term goal - one day - would be to harvest some honey....but who knows how far away that reality is.
