In the last five years or so, it's been one thing after another in our bee yard. We've experienced everything from Africanized honeybees, pesticides, Varroa infestation, treatment resistant nosema, and Colony Collapse disorder.
Last fall, we made the choice to enter winter without the use of antibiotics, nerve toxin, and the rest of the chemicals usually used to treat honeybee hives. We took a risk, and lost four hives.
And one large, glorious hive survived.
This spring, I split off a few frames from this hive in order to start an new hive. Over the next few months, I took one or two more frames.
Yesterday, we received two new survivor honeybee queens from ZiaQueenbee. I made an additional split from our survivor hive, so that I could put both queens in.
Here's the queens in their box.
Here they are in the hive.
Please wish them well. With any luck, we can help the bees find a way out of this crisis.
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