#r yard

FB Apiary/S Yard: Started with my personal Apiary today. Arrived around 11am, much later than usual, but waiting for warmer weather. It was 58F but felt cooler, very damp but not raining, no noticeable wind. My friends have helped tremendously by creating our little insulation system. We've started a plan for them to make permanent versions with buckles for ease of use. We're considering double layering them with wool or something in the center? Not sure yet. The weather down here is mostly hot and humid, so insulation isn't often needed, but we're expecting a week or more of nights below freezing, and they aren't acclimated to even flying around in the 50sF. Very little to no activity at entrances today.

Finally moved colonies Delta and Echo from the more centered hive stand to the new, more leftish hive stand. They have been weaker and more problematic than the other colonies, and my theory was flight paths and competition. I assume most of the Apiary flies back across the other colonies to forage mostly in the woods, and I wonder if the cross traffic with the center colonies was encouraging regular robbing events. We won't know until the weather stabilizes, but hopefully this helps.

Delta is the spiciest of my personal colonies, with my friends' colony S1 being the consistent rough and rowdy hive. I prefer tough, defensive bees over delicate, calm bees, so I don't mind putting up with the behavior. My friends are still able to walk around the apiary without equipment to fill water bowls and observe, so they don't feel out of control or dangerous.

Today was just dry feeding Mountain Camp Method, so beyond checking entrances for activity, below the hives for signs of dying en masse, and quick scans on top of the frames to see what the clusters look like, very little hive checking was performed. I felt bad breaking seals to feed, but they have time to reseal again before the freeze hits on Saturday. My biggest concern is extra moisture in the hive causing problems. We'll see.

Colonies S1 and S2 look strong and well populated, with S1 being it's usual reactive self.

Colonies Alpha Bravo Charlie look well, no concerns. I desperately need to buy more beetle sheets though, I keep forgetting, and the dampness seems to have dialed up the beetle issues.

Colony India looks small but healthy and clustered. The Nuc was clustered and surprisingly populated! I'm shocked, the last time I looked at the frames, there was no sign of brood or queen, so I assumed It was the neighborhood bar and the bees were just robbing. Thankfully my friend even insulated the Nuc for me. Godspeed little hive, I'm very interested to see how hardy you are.

Colonies Foxtrot Golf Hotel look strong as ever and usual. Didn't bring enough newspapers and had to use copy paper from my friends for the sugar layer.

Colonies Delta Echo looking smaller but healthy. Colony Delta was surprisingly feisty, with more active and defensive bees than usual. Gives me hope they're strengthening and have something to protect. Hope the move helps them both. Some stragglers returned to the old hive stand, surely smelling their colony but confused where it went. The move was probably just over the recommended 3 foot threshold, but I don't think they will suffer significant loss.

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R Yard: Delays from traffic got me to R Yard later than expected, but it was a mid afternoon planned visit regardless. Arrived around 4pm. Around 64F, light wind, no rain but very damp. Had to use paper towels for the sugar layer in the colonies.

Facing the apiary, working from left to right, the first two colonies seemed well. They were clustered in their deeps but some were wandering along the supers. Supers are running low. I intend to return sometime next week, when we're expecting a midweek high in the 50sF midday Wednesday, and I want to see if the bees could use a refill or have had significant loss.

Third, center colony was a dead-out. Signs of absconding and robbing, no dead cluster or pile of bees on the ground below the hive. I removed the super but left the deep and entrance reducer.

Fourth colony from the left is single deep, cluster easily visible. High strong population.

Fifth and last colony on the right was another dead-out, seemingly an abscond. Some mild wax moth presence but minimal damage, signs of robbing. Shocking considering this was at one point last year the largest and strongest colony.

Very upsetting, 40% loss, and the worst has yet to come weather-wise. And the customer was very concerned, didn't want to experience any loss this year. No one ever wants loss, but some form of loss is generally expected, especially as the weather gets more and more unpredictable. And losses this year and last have been at all time highs for various reasons. We're lucky to have bees left at all. Still incredibly heartbreaking and disappointing. R Yard has been added to the spring priority list.

Their neighbors livestock stopped by to watch.