Well, I found out at today’s meeting of the East Texas Beekeepers Association http://etba.info/ that my honey bees did not swarm and leave me. I talked to one of my friends out there who has been keeping bees for years and he said that bees swarm because of overcrowding issues. The honey bees simply run out of room and the plentiful amount of bees in the space that is provide for them causes them to be overcrowded and therefore leave to find more suitable space. Did the bee hive look overcrowded with bees? No.
He told me that the honey bee colony’s ability to survive winter depend on their food stores. Was there honey in the hive? No. Was I feeding them? Yes. Did I keep a full supply of sugar water in their feeder at all times or did I only refill it when it ran dry? I refilled it only when it ran dry. That was a big mistake. Honey bees have to have ample food available year around or the bee colony’s health will suffer. They did not all die in one mass die off. Instead, they slowly died over the winter because they were not receiving the food they needed on a consistent basis. That is why I did not readily notice the dwindling amount of bees still alive.
Honey bees remain active all winter long. Besides food honey bees need to remain warm. To remain warm they need energy that they get from honey. My hive consisted of two brood boxes and one super. I should have removed the super before winter set in because of having that super on top it was just more open space for the bees to have to keep warm. That was another mistake.
Well…. I will have to start over with honey bees and vow to become a better beekeeper. I am going to get two new hives. I have ordered one hive of bees from this website http://www.beeweaver.com/. The other hive I am going to get locally if someone in the East Texas Beekeepers Association has one to sell or will find at another vendor website. I am taking this opportunity to order two different types of bees from two different places so that I could compare them and see if I prefer one type of bee over another and the more experience I have of being around bees, taking care of them, and learning from my mistakes the better I will become at beekeeping.
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