If not, it’s because 5 out of our 6 bee hives didn’t make it through the winter 😦 This past season was one of the worst on record for beekeepers all over the area, and the success of our apiary on South Hill was no exception. All three of our Langstroth and two of our top bar colonies died, but the last top bar seems to be feisty as ever and we have high hopes that they will keep going strong into the summer!
We attended a “dead-out clinic” sponsored by the Finger Lakes Beekeepers Club on April 19 to try to deduce the cause of death for each of our hives. We suspect ours were stressed due to a heavy Varroa mite population in combination with extremely low temperatures and lots of ice and snow.
But the good news is we have EIGHT packages of bees heading our way in the next few weeks! Sam Comfort, owner of Anarchy Apiaries, is providing us with our new bees this spring and we are excited to make the trip to the Hudson Valley to bring ’em home. We’ll keep you updated when we begin installations!
South Hill Forest Products 