Some time in January, all my bees disappeared. Gone! I don’t know why.
I emailed a newfound great resource, Bee Keepers of the Napa Valley and asked them for help. Jon returned my email with some thoughts on perhaps what had happened. He said, “It is hard to second guess Mother Nature. They could have been sick, they could have had bad genetics, it might have been too cold for a new hive, or the bees may have gotten confused and just split. He suggested I examine the hive for clues.
I opened the hive and found that the frames had a lot of comb on them and they looked clean. I didn’t find any bugs or anything unusual.
Jon mentioned that he had lost 6 of 20 of his hives and to just start over. He did suggest that I buy my bees from Bee Kind of Sebastapol, which is where I purchased them last spring. I took his advise and just started over.
Welcome to my new bees. I have purchased an additional hive to increase my odds of getting a little bit of honey this year.
