Hive #001 Down?
Well as we stated when we started this BLOG just over a year ago, we want to share the good and the bad with you all. There was a lot of good news to report over the past year! Unfortunately we have a spot of bad news to report.
Mike came to check our hive a couple weeks back during his normal rounds and found very few bees within our hive. Mike was able to find the Queen but the population of the hive struck Mike as extremely low in numbers. This hive has always been observed as healthy. Naturally a hive’s population begins to thin out as Winter draws near, this did not strike Mike as a natural drop.
Mike reduced the hive down to just one brood chamber and we’ve inserted a entry restricter to help them defend the hive from “robber bees”. There is plenty of food stores for the size of the colony so now it will be a waiting and closely observing game.
The unfortunate prognosis Mike gave is that there is a very real chance this hive will not survive the Winter. Very sad.
We’ll keep you posted on how things go over the next month or two. Wish us and our honeybees luck!
Have you had any issues with your hive this year? Drop us a line to tell us about it.
Bee Rancher BUZZ 