I am sad to announce that both of my Honeybee hives are dead.
The hives had plenty of honey in them, so the bees had plenty of food. I removed the frames of good honey, to process later. I have had bees for quite a while now, but I am no expert. I am pretty certain that the large hive died because the top got blown off in a big wind storm. I didn't see it due to about 20" of snow on top of it. When I did notice the problem, I tried to help by removing all the snow and the wet material inside the hive. I am sure that I was very late to notice the problem. The bees couldn't survive the cold and wet for several weeks.
I am thinking that I will not replace the bees this spring. Maybe I will be able to save a swarm nearby.
I took this photo of a honeybee swarm a few years ago. Bee swarms are something to behold...to see the bees flying in a circular manner, and to hear them is pretty amazing.
