This winter has been long, cold, and lots of snow. Our average snowfall is over 200″ a year, well this winter it’s over 250″, and finally starting to go away! Today getting into upper 40’s was a great day to open the colonies for a look to see how they have made it through winter. With only a handful of days this winter for cleansing flights I’m very happy how they are looking with our nightly temperatures still in the teens. We added pollen patties to all colonies to help them start spring buildup. Our losses are around 10%, which is great, I used a lot of insulation with no upper vent making it possible to over winter lots of 10 frame and 5 frame colonies with good success. With lots of strong colonies to fill our nuc orders this year our orders will be healthy and on time as long as mother nature helps a little on queen mating flights in early May. Beekeeping is a very interesting and unpredictable hobby – business but with proper management, mite control, and equipment is also amazing how they can thrive in our adverse weather. Hope everyone is having a great spring and looking forward to more beekeeping and warmer temperatures.
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