The Bee's

We managed (so far) to bring both hives through winter. The hive out on a friends property the "Snow hive" is Kicking Ass!! They are strong in number coming into spring which means likely they will swarm. But that could be a good thing because we'd split the hive and then have 3 separate hives. WOOT! The only downside to the Snow hive, they might have Nosema which is like bee dysentery. It can weaken them and eventually kill them. We won't know for sure until they can be tested, and in order to test the hive we have to take a sample, but to take a sample the hive has to be opened and we can't do that until the temperatures are above 60*. But they seem strong, strong enough anyway to last until the temps warm up. The brown streaks are.... what you're thinking. As soon as we have them tested we'll treat with a combination of essential oils. 

This is Jake scraping out the dead bees that collect on the bottom of the hive. The girls take care of this in the summer time when they are able to fly. In the winter the dead just pile in the bottom, blocking air flow and thus disease can reign.

The hive at our house is doing good too. We thought for sure they would die off due to such small numbers. But yesterday in the warm sun tons of bee's were flying, so they look promising. I still think we'll have to combine them with another hive just to give them a chance at long term survival.  But we'll see. With any luck we'll get honey this year.