2B or Not 2B

Well, things are not going well on the bee front. Lost both my hives this winter.

So I bought two new packages this year, set to arrive March 30th. On March 29th, my Dad broke his hip. I contacted Waldo Ohio Apiaries, and they said no problem, they would send me my packages in two weeks with their next shipment.

So I get the new packages and the bees are half dead. Even the postwoman commented, "I've never seen a package that looked that bad." I called Waldo Apiaries and they said I shouldn't have accepted them from the post office, it's my problem now. Thanks a lot. They promised that they had not sent me two week old packages, but I wonder.

So I installed the packages, and find that one of the queen cages had a live queen and all dead workers. The other queen cage looked okay.

Today, it's 3 weeks later, and both hives have laying workers, no queens. Bunch of drone cells. Argh. In a Hail Mary effort, I drove 30 minutes away, bought two queens and put the queen cages in my hives. Now I guess I just wait and hope they don't kill them. I SUCK AS A BEEKEEPER. dangit.

What a Cluster

Well, it's the dead o' winter round these parts, and I want to leave the bees alone. But on a 45 degree day, I noticed that one hive was acting strange. I peeked inside, and they weren't clustered and they were buzzing very loudly. In my limited experience, loudly buzzing bees are unhappy bees, for any number of reasons.

Today was colder, so I couldn't do much. I peeked in and they were more clustered, but not really like I expected. At least they aren't buzzing loudly. This hive is in two mediums and if this is the cluster, it's huge. I thought this hive was smaller. If this is indeed the cluster, they'll run out of food before Winter is through with them.

I really don't want to lose this hive. It's the more natural of the two hives. It's also serene. This hive has never stung me, even when I tore into the hive, pulled apart the comb, dropped it, picked it up off the ground and replastered it in the frames with rubber bands.

I love these little buggers. What's up with that?

Here's a close up.