My hive was doing so well last year that I thought I'd come into spring strong but something must have happened over the winter. I assume it was varroa mites, which I had treated for last year but I didn't check again during the winter. By the time I got into my hive to check how things were going, there was a very small bee population. I found the queen so I thought the colony might survive. I dismantled the whole hive and put five frames in a nuc box in the hopes that I could give them a smaller space to occupy and then build it back up. But when I went in last weekend, I couldn't find the queen and there were even fewer bees. So it's time to start over. I'm hoping to catch a swarm or maybe a swarm will find my empty hive. Either way I'm not giving up and this year I'd like to get two going so that I can use one to help the other if need be.
That's the nuc box on the right.
Five frames with a a few bees but no queen by this point I think.
Since I dismantled the hive, I was able to harvest a number of full and half full frames. I got just over thirty pounds of honey.
I made some new labels for the honey jars.
