For two years in a row, I've been paid a premium for every hive I shipped to California. Better lucky than good I guess. This year, we shipped about 500 hives. In most past years, I've relied on someone there to feed after Christmas but my wife and I took over that job the past 2 years. Worked out well so we'll continue doing it but we will downsize to only about a half a load in the years leading to our 70th birthdays....then, we'll downsize to a much smaller number of hives and winter everything in sunny North Dakota. We'll miss the trips to CA, especially our time at the wineries!
