August 28, 2009: How are the Bees?

Well, it's been a long time since I posted a blog entry. Blogs are cool but it's difficult to maintain the momentum when we're all so busy.

So how are the bees doing? It's been a rough year.

• The Italians I purchased in April are mean as heck. I dread working with them. I've renamed the overwintered Italians the "Filippellis" and the mean ones, the "Mussolinis."
  
• The state inspector last week left a note that my "hives are dying" due to varroa mite infestation. "Treat with CheckMite ASAP." Well what if I don't use chemicals?!!
  
• I got lazy with the powdered sugar treatments.
• I only harvested 2.125 pounds of honey (used the crush and strain method, worked well).
• The bees have little honey stores going into fall.

It is discouraging to be a beekeeper these days: it seems like a hopeless battle against the mites, when you're trying hard to be organic. It's an expensive hobby when you have to buy new bees every year and harvest little to no honey. But I guess, most hobbies are expensive.