We have snow on the ground. Not much.
Almost everyone likes to play in the snow, even if you do not have hands for snow balls.
Mama continues to get larger and I can literally see her lambs doing flip flops inside her. 
Some of us have no interest in playing in the snow though.
We will look at the devastation that is the remains of my bee hives shortly but first here is a lovely surprise. I made the finals in the writing contest over where Nancy writes at Spirit Lights the Way. So if you have a moment, do pop over and vote for your favourite entry. The competition is all about writing spaces and there are some wonderful short essays and poems.
The Shush Sisters were not allowed to come out and play in the snow, maybe today will be warmer. They used their entire repertoire of honks and squeaks and oinks to try and convince me to let them out but no-one one would wear a jacket so in they stayed. 
Snow. And now to the bees. I was encouraged by one of my bee mentors to have a quick peek in the hive and I found piles of honey but no bees, so I looked further down. 
Further down I found this. All the bees are dead. They have been dead for quite some time.
The comb is black and in some places it has been eaten away. 
Good morning. No life in the hives at all. I have seen this kind of thing on a smaller scale from a moth infestation. But it is winter and both hives have been wiped out. There are no webs or cocoons or larvae. Very sad. I shall research this today. We need to work out what killed them, how to avoid this happening again, what to do with the supers full of beautiful clean honey left behind by my beautiful bees and how to prepare these dirty supers for a new beginning this coming spring or do I burn them and give up. There is a lot of honey sitting out there now. I don’t want to give up on having bees. Grim isn’t it.
Well, lets all take a big breath and get on with today. Straight after the milking I am off to visit Nancy to read all the writing desk entries and vote, then you and I better get our bee books out.
Look for loveliness today. I am off into the snow to milk the cow and check on all the healthy happy animals waiting in the barn. No use moping. Though I feel like it.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
90 responses to “Bad news about the Bees and a Chance to Vote.”
Looks like Mama’s got 4 in there, yet again… How’s Mia faring this time?
So sad about the bees…Is there anyone you can talk to at the County Extension? Maybe they keep records, to track issues like this?
Wishing you a better day today, C.
Mia is doing OK. Though yesterday I heard her groan, which is not nice to hear at this stage. I am watching her very carefully as you can imagine. c
Sad news about the bees. I was thinking of keeping them myself and at that time I bookmarked this resource as ‘useful’: http://biobees.com/index.php
Hope you and your ‘bee mentors’ are able to figure out what happened.
Thank you carrie, i shall pop over and see. The trouble with other insects (I think) is that all their natural prey is wiped out by the sprays and GM crops, so the bees are very vulnerable. I am trying to be organic but it is hard out here. I shall check out this site.. c
good morning Celi sorry about your bees there is some good to any thing; there may be some thing that is going on like the GMOs that is planted all around you that are proven to be not bee friendly?
The crops are most definitely at the root of the problem, but I cannot give up yet, other people have bees on the edge of the fields, so there is no reason why I can’t find a way to do the same.. c
So sorry!
Morning Julie, we all have our share of ups and downs .. c
Too bad about the bees. We had no luck with them at all on our 2 attempts. One day we may try again.
Bad luck Michelle, I have had some wonderful harvests, and it sells so well too, so I am not quite ready to give up but first I need to know how to avoid this happening again.. c
So sorry about your bees. I know we have to get used to loosing beasties – big or small – but to loose the whole population must be devastating. Good luck with your research.
Christine
You are so right Christine, it is part of farming, discouraging though.. c
sorry about the bees, but the contest cracked me up. I read through the entries wondering if I would recognize which one was you. uh yeah. 🙂 You’re winning so far!
Hey Melissa, thank you for voting, I did not want to influence you!! I am going to pop over right now and cast my vote too! c
Oh, I ‘m so sorry about the bees! I hope you figure it out!
So do I. It is a rotton set back. c
I am so sorry about your bees. It is heart breaking when you have loved and cared for them. Last year in the UK there were masses of bees that died, Some put it down to insecticides used in gardens whilst others said it was a disease. Our friend Dave Wright used to be the second biggest breeder in the UK…all his bees died. I would ask him for information but he moves around a lot and I do not know where he is.
Start again…but I think the hives would need a really good clean and disinfect just in case…. It is so disheartening when something like that happens
Thank you and I will start again in fact I need to order my new bees pretty smartly.. I may lose the organic label though as I will have to fumigate the supers. but if I have to burn them then we are pretty much finished. The supers are expensive.. it took me years to collect all these hives.. ah well..c
Celi, I’m sorry about your bees. My (new) hive also did not make it and I have no idea why as the comb they did build looks healthy (and empty). I “pampered” them all summer, shutting them in the hive on days when surrounding farm fields would be worked, providing sugar syrup, etc but my efforts were in vain. I have bees ordered for April delivery and will try again, but I wonder if it’s possible to keep bees successfully surrounded by the farm fields. Such a waste and I’m appalled at the downward spiral this is giving beekeeping.
Jan in SE Illinois
Did they die in the winter? How miserable. This has been a tough winter with all the temperature fluctuations. I have had better luck when it goes into deep cold and stays there.. But you are right we need to keep trying, we cannot give up on the bees.. c
I’m not sure exactly when as I didn’t want to open the hive when the cold first came. But in late fall, they quit laying brood, the honey disappeared almost overnight,and from there it was death by attrition. No appearance of invasive species or disease. Like you, I’m not sure how to deal with the hive in preparation for this spring. Apparently beekeeping has a steep learning curve :-(.
jan
well we are both on that curve, so do keep in touch. evidently so far we are to scrape and clean the frames.. then let them sit in the cold, sun and air.. and reassemble i guess when it is time for the new arrivals.. fingers crossed. let me know how you go.. we have some work ahead of us.. c
Maybe someone at http://forum.beemaster.com/ can help you. There are a lot of friendly beekeeping experts there.
Thank you, I shall check them out.. all advice is welcome.. (especially if they concur) c
That’s too bad about the bees . . . when I saw the title of this post, I wondered whether they all froze to death. I hope you figure out what went wrong so you can harvest some of the honey and find a solution for next year.
Best of luck in the contest. Hope a few of your faithful fans, followers, and friends will stop by, read the submissions, and vote. 😀
Thank you Nancy, the contest was a great idea!! c
So sad about your bees. I just finished a beekeeping class and plan to start my first hives in the spring. I understand winters are tough and these things happen to the best of beekeepers. Very disheartening, but I’m sure you’ll gain valuable insight that will help you and your bees weather through the winter next year. Do share, I’ll look forward to learning as well.
I will share.. did you see anything like this in your course?.. c
Not that I can pin down from my notes. American Foul Brood could be a possibility. Consider contacting your local apiary inspector or a local beekeeping assoc. Local bee keepers are very knowledgeable and love to help. The USDA in Beltsville MD also has a bee research division where you can send bee samples for them to diagnose. They even have a diagnosis document online: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/honeybeediseases/honeybeediseases.pdf. I hope that helps. Best of luck restoring your hives.
Thank you, good info, there is no smell at all so we can rule out foul brood with some relief.. This site looks good, i shall pop over.. thank you.. c
oh damn! i was so hoping this would not happen. please let us know if you find the cause.
Very sorry to hear about your bees. A heartbreaking disappointment. I’m off to visit Nancy, and vote for you. Stay warm, c.