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| Our new bees |
It was a devastating winter for beekeepers in the Northeast of the United States this year. Reports of loss of 90 to 100% of hives was not uncommon. My heart goes out to the people who keep bees for a living.
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| Checking on the new hive. |
Our family are backyard beekeepers who are involved in beekeeping to help the environment, because worldwide bee populations are declining which is dangerous because without pollinators like bees around plants will not flower and fruits will not grow.
We also are allergy sufferers and eating local raw honey seems to help relieve our allergies. It is also really wonderful to be able to make our own candles from beeswax, which we have needed more and more often with the power losses we have be having from hurricanes and other storms.
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| Feeding the bees sugar water. |
Back to the bees... we lost all of our hives this winter. Most beekeepers in the area are speculating that it wasn't colony collapse that killed the bees this winter but Varroa mites. It is hard to say for sure, but the loss was unprecedented.
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| My favorite beekeepers. |
We have been fortunate this summer to have caught a wild swarm that seems quite healthy. We have used it to repopulate two of our hives, so the Balches are hoping to have honey this coming Spring.
If you are interested in getting started beekeeping or want to learn more about how to support beekeeping check out this previous post of mine:
Be the Bee: Backyard Beekeeping Basics
