Goals for 2013

I have thought a lot about this and there are so many things I want to try, but so little time to do it.  After such a bad year for honey last year, I would like to really focus on honey production.  We had 15 hives going into winter and many of them were pretty light.  I would like to stay at about 15 hives, but really focus on building them up in the spring.  If I have any that don't make it through the winter, I will replace them with packages.  I will try not to split any hives in the spring unless they start to prepare to swarm.  I will try to feed them pollen substitute to get them to build.  I don't think I will feed them sugar water, even though most people recommend feeding the pollen with the sugar water. I am hoping they have enough honey and wont need the sugar water. I will pay close attention to the mite counts. Hopefully through these efforts I can have healthy bees going into the nectar flows. I am also hoping this year we wont have as dry of a year. I think that is what really killed me last year.

The second thing I would like to do is sell hives again this year.  We had a lot of fun doing it last year.  I found even better quality equipment and I think we can get people set up right.  I didn't have a very good experience buying our first hive, so my goal is to make sure people feel like they are ready for bees and have someone that they can trust gave them the best shot at being successful. Goal is to sell 25 hives this year.

The third thing I would like to try is to over winter nucleus hives.  It always seems like you have a couple of week hives in the bunch.  I am thinking of splitting them up the end of June or first of July and getting them built up enough to get through winter.  We will see how it goes. Winter is the most stressful time for me, because you cannot check you bees.  You just hope they will make it through, so if I had some nucs make it I can cover any of my hive losses. 

If I can do these things 2013 should be a great year.  Happy beekeeping!   

Cordovan Queen (one of my favorite breeds of queens)