The bees are here!
We tucked our bees in last fall with a lot of warmth and a good deal of hope. We didn't do a honey harvest last year, wanting to leave everything for the bees. Neither hive was incredibly strong, and in retrospect, I should have probably combined them. I don't know. I'm not sure it would have mattered...for as the winter dragged on and on, that hope of the bees making in through the season faded. And as I talked to the other beekeepers around me, I realized that I was hardly alone. I've heard of so few people around here who had their bees make it to spring. There's little comfort in that...
But a new season has begun. Our two packages of bees arrived in Portland earlier this week, and were promptly installed in the bee yard, tucked into a corner of the 'orchard'. It was our smoothest install yet - quiet, mellow, easy, fluid even. They're beautiful, these Italian honeybees...and I have so much hope about how they'll do. It is a brand new season, after all.
