A big HEY to all! I changed jobs (laid off from my old one just before Christmas) and have had very little time for my computer.
I’ve missed reading your posts and watching the forum continue to swell with new members.
This past winter was mild here in North Texas, but we managed to suffer a few days in the high teens. As some of you remember, my single hive was on top of the building were I worked, this, combined with the fact that I added too much space in the form of supers in early fall was the cause of my poor bees freezing to death! Yeah, I know better now.
What a rookie mistake. They still had plenty of capped honey and small pockets of capped brood. I would almost feel better if they had died from mites or disease rather my knucklehead rooftop idea. Plenty of folks questioned my sanity last spring, but I ignored their cautions against putting a hive in a location with no protection from the elements.
I have since retrieved all my stuff off the building, and after cleaning everything up, have set up two hives in my backyard. I’m picking up two new packages from R. Weaver this coming Saturday. The backyard location will allow me to spend a lot more time tending to their needs. My yard is in a creek bottom so high winds will no longer be a factor and preparations for cold will be much easier for me to make. To say I’ve learned a lot this year is understating the obvious.
It’s good to be back and I’m looking forward to interacting with all my old friends here on the forum and making some new ones as well. I hope all my fellow bkprs and their bees have a great season.
David
Topic: Looking forward to the season (Read 1650 times)