Early summer is now upon us and most beekeepers have had losses this winter/spring and those are now apparent. We have lost 2 hives here, one was too small to survive and the cold killed them and we lost the other through colony collapse disorder. Very distressing to see the queen with a few dozen worker bees – all the others had gone – 2 weeks later so had they. Very sad. Its quite incredible the effect the bees have had on fruit and flower populations… this is only the second year of our keeping bees and the abundance of flowers on all the fruit trees is incredible compared to the years previous to beekeeping. I would urge any any one with an interest in bees to attend a beekeeping course in their local area, other than that grow as many flowers as you can. The bees need our care and attention, summer just would not be summer without the familiar hum of the bee… we must all be aware of that
