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.
Yowza! Sorry to hear about all those troubles. That Apiary should have worked with you more. They probably didn't because they have no extra bees themselves, still...
ReplyDeleteThe laying worker problem is a tough one I guess. I hope just requeening handles it.
Are you on any bee forums? The advise one can get there is substantial. I recommend the forum at Beemaster
(http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,2.0.html)
They got me through the last 2 years.
The attrition rate for new beekeepers is ridiculously high. The first few years can be very unrewarding. The pay off is in there though. Stick with it and you'll be swimming in honey & bees!
Thanks, Hemlock, I do read Beemaster regularly. In fact, I'm surprised you found my blog without coming from Beemaster!
ReplyDeleteYour promises of an eventual pay-off are encouraging. It's amazing that people stick with it--I'm pretty good at staying the course but this is painful.
Waldo Ohio Apiaries has a very bad reputation. I've since heard from other beekeepers that they are reknowned for bad packages. :-(