2025/2026 winter was a tough one on the bees. Initally it was looking good with not too many temperature swings but as the winter wore on, we had high highs and low lows…and then spring teased us for a day or two in March but winter fought back and extended into late April before the Arctic blasts relented! We lost 20% of our colonies. Our best year was in 2017/2018 where we had 100% survival! Our worst was 88% before this year.

How did your bees do this winter?? Now that it’s warm, we can troubleshoot and find out the reason the dead ones died. Mites? Low population? Out of food? Too much condensation? Yellow jackets in fall? So many of these are easy fixes! Contact me to find out the answers if you can’t wait! In further blog posts I’ll write more about these topics! Also, make sure to clean your bottom boards so you can help the bees out with a task that is tough for them but very easy for us.