Dead

Both hives died this winter. We had a mild winter with endless rain. I suspect the humidity caused mold, which killed the bees. I'm done. Keeping bees in this area is too difficult. I will donate all our equipment.

Ants

About three weeks ago it suddenly stopped raining and our dry season started. Now we'll have very little rain until October, when it will start raining almost continuously again. It's been warm the past few days. We replaced the hive that died and the bees are booming now. We like to sit by them in a couple lawn chairs and just watch them, see the foragers come and go. As usual, tonight each hive had large ants trying to get in. They just keep trying. When they get too close a bee will come and they'll run away. Sometimes the buzz their wings at them and if the ants get too close, I think the bees even bite them. I saw one ant almost made it in. Then a bee came and just picked the ant up and air lifted him outside the hive's ramp and dropped him on the ground. Bye bye ant. It was pretty cool to see.

2018

Last year, we got two sets of five frames locally in late May and requeened with Russian queens (I think in June). One of the hives died at the beginning of fall. Lots of mold in that hive, so perhaps it was just the mold that did it.

Inspected the hive that survived from last year. The hive is doing really strong! Two or three succession cells, no swarm cells.Even plastic foundation is drawn out. Brood up to two or three frames from far end. Fair amount of drones and drone cells. Did not see queen. Very little action in shallow super, frames not really drawn out yet, so removed queen excluder because it was a bit clogged and put shallow super back on.