There were approximately 40 people in attendance at last night's meeting. How to hive your new bees and feeding options to keep them going. Thank-you to the more experienced beekeepers that came - their questions and comments helped fill the gaps. Hopefully, new beekeepers left with information to successfully begin their beekeeping journey.
For most in attendance, the word is large losses this past winter. Extreme cold, starvation, mites or ??, will not really know until inspections are made. Many of the hives are still deep in snow. I would expect a combination of the above to be the culprit in our losses.
Monty Blashill spoke to getting a top bar hive through the winter. To my knowledge, this is the first in the area. He told us what he did to help it along - thick walls, insulation, and plenty of food. More on this later.
Thanks Monty!
Here is picture of my two year "survivor" hive. Not very pretty but it lived.Note that it has only one deep and a medium.Hives with 2 deeps and a medium died--go figure.