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.”
How heartbreaking, hope you are able to get to the cause. Going over to vote as soon as I post this.
I’m so sad about the bees! It happened to a friend of mine who has a city hive, and her hive man just brought another, which is now thriving. I signed a global petition yesterday to beg European leaders to ban the pesticides that are hurting bees.
On a happier note, congratulations on making the finals, and may your writing thrive and find success.
I am working hard at it, and waiting to hear about when you will be published too.. it must be imminent!! c
Oh my, Celi. I am very sorry. I like your choice of word…grim, it is! I, like everyone else, will be interested to learn what you discover through your research, and hope you find it to be an anomaly unlikely to reoccur. It’s very sad to see the hives so cold and desolate. It’s much more cheerful to spend some time over at Spirit Lights the Way. I’ll head on over. oxo
Oh Celi, how very sad about the bees! On a happier note, no guessing who I voted for…
Have a super Monday!
🙂 Mandy xo
Well done with the writing competition, Cecilia. Dreadful to see the ruined supers – very sad. Hope you find out how it happened before you get some more bees.
Sorry to hear about the bees. After reading this today I went out and checked my two hives. It was too cold to inspect (not that I do that much anyway 😉 but saw one brave girl at the door looking lively, and peeked in the observation window of the other and saw a few (moving!). We’ve had a very wet winter, with some icy cold spells – the wet is harder on them, I think, and the outside of the hives are all sooty with mold. Hopefully they’ll make it through. I don’t take their honey, so they should have plenty of healthy food, too. (fingers crossed) I think the artificial food (sugar syrup) is part of why CCD has become so prevalent – it leaves them weakened (even if it’s organic/non-GMO sugar) and makes it harder for them to survive the winter. Hope you can get a new hive going this spring.
I am so glad your bees are well and yes I agree about the sugar, but I think mine starved so i will have to research a better feed source.. if you get any ideas let me know!! c
Such a shame 😦 Well done to you on the writing though!
very sad that your bees have all died. We thought about having a hive but with chickens, pea hen and doves I think that will be enough for now. The Pea Hen was a mistake for a chick!
you need a peacock to go with your mistaken pea hen!! I would love to have doves though.. c
So sorry to hear about your honey-makers!! I send extra love for the remainder of the farmy family!!
I´m really sorry about the bees! Congratulations, very nice words in Nancy´s blog!