Hive, Hive, Hurray!

"Your post about nucs is a bit doomsday," Meghan writes. She goes on to say that the survival of the bees over the winter is less about growing huge than it is about the bees' conditions and ability to survive.  "Many people over-winter nucs successfully, and very small hives as well.  Many, many more factors come into play than when you put the bees into your hive."

More good news: "If you overwinter even a small hive successfully, it can be built up and split in the spring. You don't even have to take queen-rearing courses to do that, and you can be more sustainable." As I suspected, the most important thing is to have more colonies, so that when you experience overwinter losses, you still have colonies as support.

Her best guess about why my hive absconded at the end of last season: too much moisture. The technique Clay showed me of intensifying the fully drawn, honey- and brood-filled frames into a single medium will help the bees manage climate within the hive and give them a better shot at winter survival.