The Real World of Beekeeping
"Bees are fascinating creatures. The things they do are absolutely amazing.
Within a bee's life it is a janitor, producer, builder, nurse,
manufacturer, mortician, guard, exterminator, scout, navigator,
communicator, farmer, pilot, hunter, warrior, and a raider. They
lead me to think beyond evolution."
-- Edward W Williams --
I read articles on the internet, watch videos, go to lectures, and talk with other beekeepers. They all acknowledge the problem of extreme colony loses each year, but none of them say they have problems with colony loses. I've always been on the skepticle side of things, so it all seems extremly strange to me that nobody has a problem. The USDA reported that over the last 3 years the average colony loses have been 55-62%. I started beekeeping during the worst times in recorded history. In the spring of 2024, I had lost 66% of my colonis I had in 2023; in 2025 I had a 40% lose, and in 2026 I had an 80% lose. It's weird, but my average loses over the whole time as a beekeeper is 62%. I have bought 13 packages of bee and have only 10 colonies and I haven't even gone through the winter yet. My journal is for me to vent and collect my thoughts. I make it public so people can get an understanding of what the real world of beekeeping is like.
Here I go again.
I did most my building during the winter. I've just been thinking about what to do.
I'm try to get to the point where I have ten to twelve hives going into winter each year.
I don't think I can manage more than twelve on my own. If I could get to the point of at
least having a 50% survival rate, I could split each hive in the spring, then I could
always have 12 hives going into winter. I could do more splits with more skill and a little
luck. I had ten hives last summer, eight going into winter, but only two survived.
My problem isn't just maintaining enough hives after winter; it's also being able to make
splits to cover my loses. I've put a good amount of time and money into beekeeping.
I thought I'd be farther along with my apiary by now; have a good supply of honey,
have a good outlet for selling my honey, selling the extra spring splits, raising and
selling queens, making soap, and other bee related items. No, I'm starting over every year.
I don't want to keep buying bees every year.
My packages of bees will arrive soon and I'll be splitting the colonies that survive.
I'm going to start my bees in nucs, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them
in there for winter. I listened to a speaker talk about overwintering in nucs last year.
I gave it a try with three packages and none of them survived. I'm up for a challenge but,
once bitten; twice shy. Maybe I'll keep two colonies in the nucs and transfer the other two
into 10-frame hives. I'm starting to configure all my hives with just medium supers.
The deep supers are getting to be a heavy lift for me. If I had it all to do over again,
I'd use all medium supers from the start.
-- March 25, 2026 --
Bee season 2026 has started.
Only 2 hives make it through winter. I can't see any clues that tells me why they died. This
happens every year. I had one strong colony and one weak colony that made it. I made a split
from the strong hive. The split still had a huge amount of bees and they made about twelve
queen cells. I didn't plan on making more splits so soon, but I didn't want to waste the extra
queen cells, so I decided to make two more splits with the extra cells.
My four packages of bees came in today (April 27.) They all looked real good. I installed them
with no problems. In a few days, I'll check if all the queens are released and later, I'll check if they
are laying. I should know around Mid-May if all 9 colonies will be good. After everything settles down
in a few weeks, I think I might extract some honey.
The temperature is going to go below sixty for about five days. I changed my order this year to
have the bees delivered later, so the temperature would be higher. That didn't do any good. I
made the splits expecting it to stay above Sixty. No, that didn't happen. I don't like doing
anything with the bees when the temperature is below sixty, especially if its a new colony.
There's not a lot of bees in a package or a split, so they have a hard time thermoregulating
the hive if it gets cold. The packages are busy, but not much activity with the splits.
I'll just have to wait out the cold spell.
I'm getting a little depressed. The weather is so cold that I don't want to go into the hives.
It's past the time I should check the hives, but it's not important enough to risk chilling
the brood. The queens won't die if they're still in the cages, but they wont be able to
lay. I think one of the new packages is died and I don't think the splits are going to
make it either. I think I'm going to end up with only the two overwintered and three of
the new colonies.
Every year the bees don't always cap over all the honey on a frame, so I end up with
frames that have a lot of uncapped nectar. I only extract honey from full frames of capped
over honey, so that creates the problem.
I'm feeling pretty stupid that I didn't think about this sooner. I'm going to put the
frames in the extractor and extract only the nectar and uncapped honey. I could make mead
or give it back to the bees. Then, I can extract just the capped over honey and all
my frames empty to use again. It will take a little more time, but all the honey I
bottle will be the honey that the bees approved as honey.
Problem solved.
-- April 30, 2026 --
Getting behind already.
It's mid-May. The weather has been cold and then I got sick, so I'm not getting in the
hives like I should. I have medical issues that really slow me down and sometimes I come to
a complete stop, not good.
Mid-June with the temperature below 60. All the bees are slow this year. It's a strange bee
season. I do have 10 hives. I'm surprised I made 4 splits, but 2 seen to bee queen-less. I
took some capped over queen cells from a split I made about 10 days ago and put them in
the queen-less colonies. I hope they can make colonies that will survive this coming
winter. I still find beekeeping interesting and it's enjoyable to work in the apiary, but
the die-off in the winter and the lack of people wanting to buy my honey is extremely
discouraging. I'm getting into making mead, kombucha, and vinegar. I haven't
made any yet, I'm just getting ready.
-- June 19, 2026 --
