Fresh Start or a Step Back?

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is off to a positive start and thinking about the garden. Spring prepping waits for no one and I’m getting my seeds in order. In my area January is the month to plant lettuce, leeks, onions, peas, radishes, rhubarb and spinach. I gotta get going on that as soon as the garden isn’t looking more like a shallow lake.


Last weekend I stopped by my parents’ house in the evening to drop off a pitchfork. Unbelievably, my mom asked for one for Christmas. I special ordered one with a short handle for our vertically challenged family so it got here a bit late. When I was there I dodged and jumped some puddles to get next to my bee hive. I was curious to see how they were doing so I put my ear up next to hive body. Nothing. The silence was deafening even though the frogs were peeping away with all of the power in their lungs. I felt a slight panic but hoped that they were just sleeping. Knowing that wasn’t true, I used the excuse as my coping mechanism just as well.


I was concerned but didn’t say anything. This week has finally been sunny so I’ve been hounding my dad to go over to the hive to see if there is any activity during the day. He forgot both Monday and yesterday. I called him last night to tell him that he really needed to check and that it was important. He promised.


Today, my mom called to say that she was ecstatic about the new activity on one of her bird feeders (also from Christmas). The only response I could muster was, “Did dad check on the bees???” She handed the phone over to him and said, “I’ll let you talk to him.” “It’s not good news,” he said lowly.

Within the last two weeks I’ve lost my bees. It wasn’t colony collapse; I know that much. The bees died in a clump inside the hive so I’m guessing they got wet and cold during all of the strange wet weather we’ve been having. I’m sad about it but they say you loose 50% of your hives every winter, and well, I only had one hive so I suppose my odds weren’t too great. I can’t help but think it’s my fault somehow. What did I do wrong? My bees were very healthy and strong. Did the queen die? Did they get wet? They didn’t starve but did they end up getting a virus?

Is it a fresh start or a step back?

I won’t know until we open up the hive completely and at that time, I’ll harvest their legacy. There is still about 30 pounds of honey in the hive and I’ll harvest it if it looks OK.

Daphne