Hotham Family Apiary

It pains me to write that my apiary has suffered a total loss. I have no colonies. My bees have all died. That is pretty sad. Now, I have to figure out what went wrong, and what am I going to do to prevent it from happening again. I've mentioned on several occasions that the varroa infestation this year was extreme. In my case, the late summer/early fall re-invasion is probably what did my colonies in. Welp, guess I am going to have start from scratch. Bummer.

so, 2016 was an interesting year (interesting does not always mean good) for me as a beekeeper. I went into the season with two viable colonies and ended the season with four. We harvested about seventy pounds (thirty-two kg) of honey, almost all from one colony. Throughout the entire season I expressed my concerns and doubts regarding the varroa destructor situation. My colonies seemed to be plagued by them, and I wasn't ever able to really keep the numbers manageable. In the end, that cost me dearly. Since November, three of four colonies have perished as a result of varroa destructor. My cash-cow colony also succumbed to those little bastards! The fourth colony, which is actually the artificial swarm I created in July, seems to be holding steady (fingers crossed and praying), but they had less than desirable numbers heading into winter. Now, it seems, that 2017 will be a rebuilding year. This happens to everyone who is in the beekeeping game, or at least I have...