Well, it was a rough first year. Ants galore, insane weather, almost got taken out by tornadic winds, angry bees and multiple stings. But, I did finally get rid of the ants. But, I saw my first sign of hive beetles after all this time. Dang it.
BUT I did manage to get two big mason jars of honey out! today The easiest part of the entire experience. Tastes unlike any honey I ever had. What a ride.
Well done Keith, you deserve that reward. I have to agree that extracting the honey is the easiest part of the beekeeping journey. Someone recently told me that around 80% of new beekeepers give up in the first 12 months. This bloke was determined not to be one of them. Only time will tell.
Well done, Keith.
The first couple of years are a challenge. The things you do heading into winter are the most important you’ll face. Two tasks: 1) make sure your mite count is as low as possible and 2) provide enough food to make it to spring.
Skip either and the odds of having bees in spring plummets. Mites hunker down in the warm cluster, feeding on bees all winter, if the bees make it to spring and start expanding, the mite population grows exponentially. The spring mite population coming out of winter determines how quickly they exceed threshold and overwhelm the colony. Starvation is the other cause of colony loss. The poorly insulated boxes we keep them in forces the bees to burn through loads of honey. If they run out of fuel, they’re done.
There are other contributors to winter losses, but in my opinion these two are at the top of the list by a wide margin. Mites and stores.
Mike