The last couple years I have struggled with keeping bees. I entered spring with one very strong hive with plans to harvest honey. That hive box was damaged so I moved the bees into a new hive in the spring. I had another young hive, and added 2 new packages.

Everything was looking up until the rains came. Over the summer the strong hive left. Then the young hive and one of the new ones followed.

Going into winter I have one new hive of Russian Hybrid bees. I have ordered a package of Italians and another package of hybrids for this spring. I may order more but haven’t decided on that yet.

The plan is to baby the new hive through winter and next spring to focus on the bee yard and orchard.