We headed into winter with five hives. It wasn’t a surprise that one died out immediately after a cold snap. They had something strange going on all summer and we didn’t think they could make it. The other four hives looked really strong and we naively thought we could overwinter all of them. Well those hopes came crashing down when we did our last inspection.

The sweet/bloom hive looks very strong and healthy. The bees are active and eating the candy and pollen patty. We were happy to see so many bees!

There are even more of them under the bee blanket. They have a very nice population.

The east hive looks incredibly strong, too. They are our only Carnolian hive which may account for their abundant population. Carnolians tend to build up their populations earlier in spring than Italians.

Look at all of those beauties!

Then there’s the dream/explore hive. Just pitiful. So few bees probably won’t be able to make it the rest of the winter. There are tons of dead bees stuck between the frames and in the cells. So sad.

Unfortunately the west hive isn’t much better. They probably won’t be able to make it thru the winter. If they do, they will probably remain weak. We still have to discuss our options and decide what to do with the two weak hives.

So, only two out of five hives will make it thru the winter. It looks like I’m going to have to order more packages, make some splits or hope to catch some swarms this summer!