[Wil]

But I only wanted two hives. lol. Started with my one hive in August of last year and this year between swarms and a nuc that I had already ordered last October,I am now up to five. Very good thing that I thought ahead and prepared more equipment for a standby.

 

[Wil]

You can see the 5 hive colonies set up in their location on the other side of the pond. Looks like I'll be doing all my fishing down at this end by the floating dock.

 

[Wil]

Lol. And now it is seven.....

 

[roadkillbobb]

well all I can say is be careful what you wish for....be happy your hives are expanding and going up in numbers as that can change very fast...many bee keepers in my area lose a high percentage of hives over the winter from one of several issues....
you can sell off hives you dont want to finance new equipment to keep them growing....in my area a 5 frame nuc goes from $225 to $250.....so you can sell nucs or complete hives for alot more $$..

 

[Wil]

well all I can say is be careful what you wish for....be happy your hives are expanding and going up in numbers as that can change very fast...many bee keepers in my area lose a high percentage of hives over the winter from one of several issues....
you can sell off hives you dont want to finance new equipment to keep them growing....in my area a 5 frame nuc goes from $225 to $250.....so you can sell nucs or complete hives for alot more $$..

Yes. Winter does scare me a bit. As you well know, it can get quite nasty. I was real nervous all winter when I only had the one hive. Now I can worry 7 times as much.

 

[roadkillbobb]

its not so much the cold, but mites and whats new by me, is that the bees go for death flights in the freezing cold and die, leaving the hive empty...I had that happen along with a few other bee keepers upstate...

 

[Wil]

Wow. I knew that some might take off for a cleansing flight and might get a false sense of the outside temperature and die by freezing. I never new they would just go off to die like that. Hopefully I have a handle on the mite control. I hope.