At the end of each beekeeping season I always write down a summary of each hive going into winter and the season overall so that I have something to easily refer back to. I figured I'd post it here, and I'd like to hear how everyone else (in the northern hemisphere who is going into winter) feels their seasons went overall.
Pests/Diseases -- Mite counts were kind of typical, but I saw a rash of DWV in late summer which concerned me. It led me to switch my mite technique to disease focus rather than mite focus, because I don't want to treat resilient bees. Bad year for beetles in the fall, lost several boxes of comb including one fully drawn and capped super to beetles.
Swarming -- Very swarmy year, almost every hive swarmed, and had one swarm to death. Also caught a swarm not from my yard, which turned out to be extremely mean.
Flows -- Spring flow was very good although honey harvesting in early summer was made challenging due to mean bees and Rapunzel badly mis-drawing. Sourwood was a good but not bonkers year. Fall flow was quite strong, with bees bringing in a trickle of nectar until the first frost. Still had several colonies going into the winter light however.
Queen Ran (Cute Bee) -- The finally throned monarch of Freya's hive attempting to swarm to death. Hive began normal colony operations in May when I combined their most recent swarm back with them after an aborted swarm and a failed queen cell resulted in hopeless queenlessness. Colony was slow to build up and I didn't take much if any honey from them, but they didn't need any treatments. Keeper.
Queen Rapunzel (Tree) -- Biggest hive of the season (and ever), at 7 boxes. Cross-combed one super terribly, but got lots of honey from them. Needed treatment due to deformed wing virus and high counts and went into winter needing feeding and weaker than expected. Requeen.
Queen Cockacoeske (Red) -- Supersedure of Queen Pocahontas in July. Colony never grew to maximum size due to do requeening at this time, but managed mites well. Little or no honey from them. Keeper.
Queen Artemis (Fruit) -- Daughter of Persephone when split colony early in year. Maxxed out at 5 boxes and had a lot of trouble late in the summer. High mite loads, DWV, serious beetle trouble, and combined Maloŕe with them after a treatment. Did get some honey off of them, but not a lot given their early start. Requeen.
Queen Natalie (70's) -- Very slow to build up, did get a little bit of honey off, but had high counts and DWV at end of season, and then absconded.
Queen Athena (Reptile) -- The Artemis daughter who was used to requeen the extremely mean hive of Queen Mystery. No useful data due to the very late requeening and artificial population reduction. Low on stores going into winter, but to be expected in the circumstances, and rebounded quite nicely in population. Keeper.
Queen Snow White (Wood) -- Second winter. Combined them after swarming with the remnants of Persephone's hive after poisoning event. Mite counts all year were very good, and they put up an absolute ton of fall honey. I also took a good bit of honey off of them even though they only maxed out at 4 boxes. Keeper.
Queen Freya (Poly/Objects) -- Second winter. Hived Freya in poly hive after swarm, but discovered I hated the poly hive, so inspected them very little. I did take some honey off of them, but they could have made more if I'd had another super. I traded the poly hive to Matt and hived them in the object hive after I combined Maloŕe with Artemis. Mites were good all season, and very docile. Keeper.
Queen Aurora (Face/Constellation/Stripes) -- Early requeen of mean queen Syrin. Took a while for them to be inspectable. They were kind of mediocre all year in all categories, and they did need treatment. Probably requeen.
Honey Harvest Total: 15 3/4 gal. (Sold 3.5 gal.)
