Friday, January 06, 2017

I lost both my bee hives already

empty hives IMG_6462

:-( The boxes of both my hives are now empty and stacked crosswise. I was sad to see so many bees die. I am guessing they died from dripping condensation as I saw water droplets in the hive when I opened it. I noticed bees begin to die in November, just after it got cold. (more ...)

3 comments:

Lorri said...

I am so sorry. That must be so heartbreaking.

Berta said...

I too am sorry to hear this. I am concerned about my husbands two hives. We live in Oregon. We have had some snow, not as outrageous are some places. I am hoping to see one alive one on a sunny day. Last year my husband opened up the hives to check on them and he lost one hive, we believe by doing that.. I hope that is not the case for us. I loved watching them this past spring and summer... Do you plan to replace with more?

kathy said...

I have only opened the hives on sunny days above about 55 F. I think that's the recommendation. But still I'm surprised opening actually killed the hive. I'll make sure I'm very careful with that. In the winter, I usually only lift the boxes to check for weight, which tells me how much honey they have left. And I look in briefly to make sure there are active bees.

Yes, I do plan to get more bees next year. I'm hoping I'm right that high humidity was the problem and I have advice on how to fix it. Good luck with your bees!!