You Win Some - You Lose Some...c'est la vie

After successfully overwintering in central NC and seeing strong activity in the early Spring, we noticed a marked reduction in activity at the Bee Line hive. As we were installing new swarms all over our bee yard, not much was happening at this hive. When we went into the hive, we found lots of honey stored and just a few bees. There was no sign of a laying queen and no brood. We did find wax moth larve on several frames. It looks like this colony may have swarmed and failed to make a new queen. Or either the wax moths moved in, and the honeybees absconded. Not sure what happened, but we have lost this colony. Oh well, such is life.
We are practicing natural beekeeping methods using Layens horizontal hives that we built ourselves. To get a copy of the plans that we downloaded for free and used to build our swarm boxes, frames, horizontal hives and insulated horizontal hives, click here: horizontalhive.com/

[@_Trojo]

I’m sorry for the loss but now there’s an extra hive to fill with a new swarm! Haha!! Like you said, say la vee! 😂😂

[@randsbees]

The hard part for us is to NOT prop up a colony that's too far gone. We're learning. Like the Jimmy Buffett song said: breathe in, breathe out, move on.

[@_Trojo]

@@randsbees And if we have a swarm that gets away or an abscond, that’s just more natural bees living in nature. There’s no losers when you keep bees with a smile, which is all natural.

[@randsbees]

That's a great way to look at it!