A Bee Hive, Fallen.

Whitney was driving out to Church while I was wrangling two sinus-y boys on last Sunday morning and she called me exclaiming,

"I think the beehive got knocked over!"

We'd setup straw bales to help as a wind break on the northwest side of the hive, but apparently the extreme wind gusts we've had in the last week mixed with the unique wind patterns on this side of the property line windbreak created a setup for the hive to fall.

I suited up the boys for our morning chores taking care of the chickens, goats, and pony, and afterwards we drove the truck across the orchard to take a look.

So we had some bees left, but not many. It was near freezing so they were not moving much. Their combs seemed pretty empty and they have little to no stored food.

Whitney suited up that afternoon and went out and reset the hive, removed the second brood box (that they had never really built much inside), and refilled the feeder. She's started her beekeeping class and some of the teachers were a bit condascending, but did offer some pointers for us to try and save this hive overwinter.

  • Constant feeding
  • Supplemental heat if we don't have a week above 50°F
  • Weekly checkups
  • Pray

We'll see how they do and hopefully we'll be able to keep them going into the spring when they can get the nectar flow and expand the hive on their own.