What’s a honey bee to do?

Early season rain, unexpected dry spell during midsummer, followed with the likes of tropical storm Irene—just when the goldenrod was ready to pop. What’s a honey bee to do?

Today, our last honey extraction customer picks up his bucket of honey. Scott is tearing down the extraction room, and in a few weeks the hives will be wrapped with roofing paper—a modest attempt on our part to help protect them from the elements for the next five to six months. We live on a windy ridge; therefore prudent to add a little extra protection, including a makeshift windbreak out of pallets and burlap. We don’t go to these extra precautions at our other apiary sites because wind doesn’t seem to be an issue. 

When you get to know your bees and their sites, you do what you can to help out. However, when the weather just won’t cooperate, there’s nothing we can do. When it rains, the bees stay in their hive. When the nectar flows decreased because of too much rain or drought, the bees just can’t collect what’s not there. In Vermont, some hobby beekeepers didn’t collect any honey, others like us sideliners have honey but less than what was expected, and our local commercial beekeepers are down too. We’ve thoughtfully turned away new request for larger orders, so that we can serve our existing customers. 

  

So although the bees did just fine with what I see as hurdles, the result of poor weather challenged us as beekeepers this year to manage our bees well. We left extra honey on the hives to help ensure they come through winter strong, but then we’ve had this uncanny warm October, thus they’re eating a lot of honey because they’re still busy flying around. Will there be enough to see them through until May? Times like this I just have to go to scripture, and not be anxious for tomorrow because each day has enough trouble of its own. . .