It's official...

The colony is dead.

It rained a lot so I went to clean out the hive and found a pack of moldy bees. No happy bees came to greet me at the window so I popped the top. It didn't take a rocket-scientist (or a very good beekeeper) to discover the enemy:

K.____ says that it's not because I'm a terrible beekeeper (I'm still not so sure-maybe she is just saying this so I won't cry?)...Instead it's because the colony was too small to keep itself warm and dry. Moisture is the number one killer of colonies around these parts and since Colony #1 only had a little time to get established, it didn't have the numbers it needed to keep out the moisture. Too much moisture means = too much mold = dead bees.

So...I cleaned out the boxes the best I could. Four of the frames were full of really nice, capped honey. Good news: They didn't starve to death. They had plenty of food. On K.___'s advice I wrapped one of the boxes with the frames of honey and put them in our fancy deep-freeze (good thing Kylene got that for Christmas, right?). It seems this will kill the mites and bacterial and moldy spores. Then, Colony #2 can use it as start up stores.

Then, I cleaned the rest of the boxes and frames the best I could (the next step is to torch them to kill all the other bad junk). I also think I need to build the bees a little platform. The current hive wasn't right on the ground, but I figure if I can get some more air movement up under the hive it will make Colony #2's job just a bit easier.

There was one frame with just a tiny-bit of capped honey and otherwise pretty comb. I brought that one inside and set about finding a YouTube video about Warre' Hive Harvestin'.

The one I found was in French. I guess it was okay that I didn't really understand any of what he said because the visual was good and I set up a simple apparatus made from a colander, a mesh-sieve, a plate and two plastic cups. I need a smaller mesh to really get out all the comb-bits...Even so. We got to sample just a bit of Colony #1's hard work.

Next year I'll be smarter and better and we'll get the hive started up sooner and maybe I won't be making this same sad report. It's pretty lonely in the backyard without those buzzers.