Yes, I know, it’s been a long span of silence on my blog. Fall and winter of 2014 have flown past. A friend and I spent all of October replacing the roof on my barn. I needed a safe structure to store all of my empty hive boxes.
Why did I have plenty of empty hive boxes? First off, a fellow beekeeper wasn’t using 8 frame hives anymore (which are the type that I use). Secondly, a few of my splits this summer did not produce much honey, therefore no need for extra supers on top. Lastly, I had three hives have their queens disappear in September/October.
Did the queens fly off,
did they die and removed from the hive,
do I really know??? No.
It was too late to re-queen, but the hive seemed to stay active until the deep freeze came on. I’ve heard that a queenless colony can sometimes survive a winter and be re-queened in the spring. Crossing my fingers!
Information from http://www.friendsofthehoneybee.com/
“The typical life of a honey bee
While life inside a beehive is literally a “hive of activity”, it is surprising just how short the lifespan of a bee actually is – but also how long, depending on the type of bee and when it is born. In the summer a worker bee only lives for about 40 days. As no young are raised over the winter months, the workers born in the autumn will live until the following spring. A queen can live up to 5 years although for the beekeeper a queen is past her prime in her third year.”
Topic for next blog…
What’s all this info in the news about Legislation to Save the Bees??
What's BEE'n Going On 