A New Year

The holidays brought with them a White Christmas and cold weather.  This was the first real test for my bees.  It was also the last test.

I wasn't really concerned about the cluster size when fall ended, but many of the bees in that original cluster had died of old age come December.  The cluster is the group of bees that stays together in the part of the hive that is easiest to keep warm but is still well ventilated.  In the early spring months, the cluster surrounds the brood, keeping it at a near constant temperature around 94-95 degrees F.  In the winter, it protects the queen from freezing temperatures.  All bees in a hive become part of the cluster over winter.

Unfortunately, with too few bees, the core of the cluster dropped below the minimum survivable colony temperature of 55 degrees.  This week has been rather balmy, so I checked out the hive to find no survivors.  I was hoping to be able to preserve the queen for education purposes at the nature center, but alas, a mouse made made it in first!

Mouse damage to the comb

You can see that there are some bees with their heads in the comb.  This is usually a sign of starvation, but these bees still had some capped honey (albeit not much).

The bad news is, my bees did not make it through the winter.  There is a lot of good news though!  I was able to salvage comb and honey to get a new hive started in the spring, I have a lot less to worry about over the winter, and most of all, I have learned a lot from my first year keeping bees.  I am excited to get started again soon.