Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Last fall I had a hive that had been doing great all year. But on the last inspection I knew it wasn't going to make it through winter because it was missing something very important. I doubt it would have made it even with human intervention. But I never give up hope because I have had bees absolutely amaze me in what they are capable of. I'm also a stickler on not raising bees that require me to babysit them non stop. I only want the strongest and smartest genetics. But the cards were stacked against them when I noticed the queen was missing in mid-novembet and it was too late to manually requeen them with an unmated queen and even if they requested themselves she would have no suiters on her mating flight. Sure, I could have combined the hive with another weaker hive if I had any weaker hives, which I didn't. So it became a game of, how strong is their will to survive? And well, we now know the answer. So let's see if my analysis is correct ....
Last fall I had a hive that had been doing great all year. But on the last inspection I knew it wasn't going to make it through winter because it was missing something very important. I doubt it would have made it even with human intervention. But I never give up hope because I have had bees absolutely amaze me in what they are capable of. I'm also a stickler on not raising bees that require me to babysit them non stop. I only want the strongest and smartest genetics. But the cards were stacked against them when I noticed the queen was missing in mid-novembet and it was too late to manually requeen them with an unmated queen and even if they requested themselves she would have no suiters on her mating flight. Sure, I could have combined the hive with another weaker hive if I had any weaker hives, which I didn't. So it became a game of, how strong is their will to survive? And well, we now know the answer. So let's see if my analysis is correct ....
