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Ten hives of bees installed today and no one was hurt in this experiment. I was thrilled to have a nice warm day for this project and even more thrilled to have 2 "newbee" beekeepers that wanted to help with the endeavor.
The depressing part was that I had lost 20 out of 20 hives in 2 yards. I haven't gotten to check my third yard but I was just horrified that I had 100% attrition. All my hives were healthy and booming going into the fall. They had plenty of winter stores so I really think the prolonged winter weather we had just did them in.
As soon as I can navigate the mud, I'll go check out the other yard. I am not hopeful though. Last year I had 20% losses. Not sure what the difference was. If this keeps up, I won't be beekeeping next year. The replacement costs are just too much. I can only hope I get lots of swarm calls this year to increase my numbers.
As far as the diet goes, I did eat a church lunch today but was able to choose meats and salads and keep it low carb. I avoided dessert which was really quite a feat. You know those church gals love to bring out their best stuff and believe me, it all looked tempting.
Two new calves this morning. The weather is nice so the calving out in the field was just the way it should be. No mud and muck, just nice sunny weather and a little bit of breeze. What more could a mama cow ask for?
Today I am thankful for gettting the bees done, the beautiful weather we are FINALLY getting, and calves on the hillside pasture.
Life is good.
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