Hi fellow beeks,
I know, I know I disappeared....life just got in the way. Coming out of Spring 2020, I had one hive remaining. Decided to stay at one hive because I had hip replacement surgery coming up in May and did not want to add more hives because I did not know how long I would be recuperating. Fast forward, surgery and recup went well but did not add any hives. This hive was booming and went into fall packed with honey stores. Now I live in the middle of suburbia, never in my wildest dreams did I think we would have bear issues. Well, we were in Florida the last week of October and my neighbor texts me with photos showing my hive spread across the yard and it was cold! Fellow beeks came and reassembled the hive. We arrived home two days later. The next day he hit the hive again. Found the frames together and the bees all clustered together, alive! The weather went up into the sixties and I was able to do a quick exam of the colony....no queen to be found. Two nights later, my husband was outside with the dog
@ 6 pm and then came in the house. At 6:30 pm I went outside to harvest some parsley and he struck again within that half hour time period. This time it was raining and the frames were spread all over the place. Poor bees were soaking wet and cold! Frames were missing and a couple smashed. Quickly we reassembled what we could and moved them into our shed. I was literally scooping up handfuls of cold wet bees into the hive. We found two of the missing frames in the woods several days later. So now they are still hanging in there with barely any stores and no pollen. I am giving them dry sugar but who knows if they are going to survive. If they are still hanging in there come the middle of February, beginning March I will need a queen. Anybody have any ideas as to where I could get a queen for that time period? It will be too soon to get one from the NY area, so I am hoping the breeders in the South will have queens.
My husband and I have just come thru Covid and been quarantined since 12/12. So to say we are a little stir crazy is an understatement! We are on the rebound!
Be careful folks and wishing you all a healthy new year!
i