Never give up

After coming out of winter with 2 dead hives and feeling like i was not a good beekeeper, i brushed myself off and got back up.
The place i had ordered a nuc from in the New Year had suffered losses also and couldn't supply me with bees. So i desperately searched for a new source. I found someone who was bringing up a large amount of nucs from the lower mainland. So i ordered 2.
To make a long story short, the bees weren't in very good shape. One hive was better than the other. One struggled since i got them, they hardly expanded their numbers, very little pollen was brought in and no capped honey.  I tried all i could to save them. We even sent some questionable larvae to the lab. A mite test showed they were infested big time. And even after treatment, nothing could be done to save them. The lab test showed nothing like AFB or EFB. The inspector figured it was a mite related virus. I felt sooo defeated.
Thankfully the other hive seems to be doing good.  And even though they still have chalk brood, the hive is large and vigorous. They have a good amount of capped honey and a good amount of bees so if there is a bee god...they will make it through the winter.
The summer has been a horrible one. It started off really hot, then it cooled down. Then we were socked in with smoke for a weeks. Now, here it is Sept 12 and we had snow today, yes you heard me SNOW. Although it was only mixed in with the rain, the snow is half way down the mountain. Last night on the weather we had heard of minus temperatures over the next couple days, so after the news i went out and gave the girls another frame of partially capped honey and wrapped the bottom 2 boxes with the silver bubble wrap insulation. This should keep them comfortable until better weather returns.  Winter can't possibly be coming already.....right?

Here it is Sept 29th now. Fall is definitely in the air. We have had many frosts, but yesterday and today we are blessed with having sunshine. Today the bees are out and about, scrambling to get ready for winter and kicking out the boys before they eat them out of house and home. Poor boys :(
Anyways, with the threat of minus temperatures arriving soon, its time to get the candy boards done and deciding on what form of winter wraps will be going on this winter.  Well....that's all for now, i am going outside to enjoy this beeutiful Autumn day.

The quirky things us beekeepers do

If anyone was to really take a look inside my car, they might wonder why i have 3 Rubbermaid containers stuffed full of frames of honey. The have taken up residency there for the past 3 months, it was yet another project i started and never completed.
Being a owner of a Motel...your time is never really your own and even a well laid out idea never goes as planned.
I saw on a facebook page i belong to,  a very clever beekeeper in Terrace would put his frames of honey in his wifes car to warm up so when he went to extract them, the honey would flow easier. I thought this was a brilliant idea. So thats when i brought out all the frames from my hives that had died during the winter and put them in the car to warm up. And there they sit and wait. I decided once things slowed down i would extract them.
In the mean time as summer went on, i noticed my 2 new nucs were struggling. Well one is doing better than the other one, but it got me thinking. I may need to add some frames of honey for the winter in the new boxes. So now they sit a little longer, but this time. I am thankful for those leftover frames of honey.
So here it is Sept 1st. My weak hive died and I am now down to 1 lonely hive. Thankfully they are doing good, and I am pretty sure they have a good supply of honey stored. Next week when i inspect them i will look through the honey super and make sure. If need bee i will add capped honey for the winter. I am so thankful to have these extra frames of honey.