Goodbye to 2014

Winter is officially here. It was 10 degrees this morning. The girls are wisely staying inside where it's warm and dry.

There hasn't been much snow yet, but the hives are covered with frost.

In contrast, it was in the 50s last week! Crazy.

One of my hellebores was blooming! That plant is almost ten years old and it has never bloomed in December.

In all, 2014 was a great year for our bees. They all made it through the winter. No AFB this year. I made up four nucs in the spring and gave three away. Nobody swarmed. The weather cooperated and the girls made 500lbs of honey for us. Two hives tried last-minute supercedures and one pulled it off. The other needed help and got an emergency nuc transplant at the last minute. I guess you never know exactly how your beekeeping year went until the next spring so until then I'll keep my fingers crossed, my eyes on the weather, and my stethoscope close at hand for when I need to hear that buzz....

What's next for 2015?? A trip to Disneyland? That's right! We're taking a trip there so I can go to the annual North American Beekeeping Conference with a few hundred beekeeping buddies. I can't wait. The boys will be at Disneyland while I'm back at the hotel attending the conference. Stay tuned.