Bees

The drought in the summer was bad for bees. The nectar flow stopped and we found ourselves having to feed the bees on a light syrup in midsummer. Ridiculous. Also one colony died - not, I think, the result of varroa because we had used the oxalic acid treatment in the winter. So the honey yield was small, not much more than 75lbs. On the other hand we hived a couple of swarms. one of which was small and may not survive the winter, but the other seems healthy and vigorous. So we seem likely to start the spring with two colonies. or three at best. We plan to treat them with oxalic acid, using the electric wand method, next weekend.