Bees Are Gone Again

The first time our 2 beehives absconded, we were devastated.  We felt like our ungrateful adolescent bees took their honey and left home in search for a better home.  After cleaning and rebuilding the hives, we installed 3 hives of 5,000 each.  We even hired a bee mentor to coach us on how to support the bees and check for mites.  Rob and John carefully used folic acid to kill the mites without harming the bees.  Things were going so well until 2 weeks ago.

We found one of the beehives abandoned and robbed of all of its honey.  Not sure why they left home – AGAIN — or why all of the honey was taken. The other bee colony stayed put but their numbers dwindled.  They couldn’t stay warm without the rest of the colony so they died in small clusters around little pockets of food.

Sadly, we haven’t been able to add our cool Flow-Hive (with the spout).  I’ve been looking forward to having the bees use the flow hives.  Who wouldn’t want to simply turn the faucet to let the honey pour out?  The flow hive even has little windows so you can see the bees busy at work inside! 

We’re meeting with our bee partners this weekend to figure out what happened to our bees and find a new solution.  At our meeting, we will all enjoy tasting the fruits of our labor – HONEY!  Apparently, the bees left a little honey behind.  Considering all of the time and money we’ve put into raising bees for 2 years, this will be the most expensive honey we’ve ever tasted!