Although the first spring, summer, and fall went very well, sadly our first winter was complete devastation for the bees! That year we had a few late winter (end of February into Mid-March) unusual weather patterns that brought very warm early daytime temperatures followed by temps that very swiftly dropped well below freezing. This caused problems with the bees reorganizing their cluster to keep the hives warm Because of that, all 10 hives froze to death.
I called I the Maine Department of Agriculture State Apiarist for an inspection to see where I went wrong. After a thorough inspection of every hive, it was determined that one hive had a mite problem that didn’t help. However, it appears they all died because of the inability to form proper clusters. She said a lot of beekeepers in the Northeast lost hives. I think losing all of mine was the worst. At least I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. So, at this point, it was financially Devastating and I had to decide if I should go forward with the apiary, go back to being a Hobbyist, or quit.
Losing a small percentage of your hives over-wintering isn’t a good thing, but in todays beekeeping world, sadly, it’s becoming somewhat of the norm. However, Generally you’ve produced and sold enough honey from the previous fall’s harvest that you can turn that profit into reinvesting and save yourself. However, with this happening to us in our first year after having invested everything we had with no honey income from the year before, it was Devastating
I was forced to sell some of my costlier equipment in hopes of saving the apiary even if you come back as Hobbyist. So, gone was our honey extractor, bottling tank, uncapping tank and a few hives! With that money, I was able to get more bees, upgrade feeders, and be a little more Prepared for Maine’s harsh winters.
It was still a tough decision as to what to do. But this has been a dream of mine for so long, I was going to do everything I could to try to save it. Even if it was just to become a hobby one again. I talk to some friends and other beekeepers and decided to keep going, but in what capacity was still undecided. But the good news was, I was going to continue!
Then it Happened!
2022 was a “loss year” were I reorganized, set up for restarting and got only one hive; a big difference from 10 that I had in 2021-2022, but it was a start. Then, as I was discussing it on Facebook, and old friend and classmate from the Aggie contacted me as asked if he could help. I said I wasn’t sure what he could do. He responded with “I can start you out with 2 packages of bees for the 2023 season.” I was very excited and took Gregg up on his Generous offer.
In the spring of 2023 when the bees came in, I volunteered at Spicer Bees (great local beekeeper supply store) to help for the day to pass out the bees as customers came in to pick them off. At the end of the day, Brian donated a package of bees to us as well. So, with the two Gregg donated to us, one that Spicer Bees gave us, and the one I had already, Just like that, I was back to 4 hives! Nearly halfway back to where I started!
Things were looking promising for the 2023 season! Another old friend from The Aggie, Ethan Noll, was starting to have bees on his farm about 40 miles from my place. I decided to puit 3 hives there and have one at my place. So, I know had Hood Brook Apiary at The Funny Farm as well!
By the fall of 2023, surprisingly, the hive at my house produced about 30 pounds of honey. My three in Vassalboro produced a total of only about 15 pounds for a season total of 45 pounds.
Over the winter of 2023-2024 the hive at my house did well but I did lose one of my hives in Vassalboro.
In the spring of 2024 I bought another package for the Vassalboro location for the one I lost. Then I got a “nuc” from Holt’s Apiary in St Alband, ME. giving me 5 hives in total. I was halfway back to where I started! The summer of 2024 was not so good production-wise in Vassalboro, but at my place, the new “nuc” produced about 60 pounds of honey and the older “nuc” produced about 10 pounds. So, 2024 gave me about 70 pounds of honey for the season! It was a record about of honey for me and it was produced by one two of the hives! We are well on our way to making a comeback.
Note: I’d like to thank the Noll Family for allowing me to place hives with theirs at The Funny Farm in Vassalboro, Maine about 40 minutes from my other hives.
So as we head into the winter of 2024-2025, we hope everything goes smoothly and we come out of this winter with mostly survivor hives so we can continue moving forward and Working toward Our 1st goal of 10 hives! That will gt us back to where we started. At that point, we can take a deep breath and start gearing up for more growth!
With some old school friends from years ago donating bees, a new idea and concept came into play. “Adopt-a-Hive” and “Honeybee Sponsors” are program we are running over at the Hood Brook Apiary site. You can play a rold in helping us recover from the 2021-2022 winter losses and continue our goal of supporting and working to save the honeybees! Anyone interested in donating wht they can or sponsoring some bees, CLICK HERE for more info!
