Zen and the Art of Beeing

Zombees: What if your dead-out isn’t a dead-out?

Posted on March 1, 2021 by MiKayla — 4 Comments

Bees that appear dead are spread out on a clear plastic plate.

I recently wrote about the hive autopsy I performed on New Years Eve 2020, when I determined that my colony didn’t make it because they were just too small to generate the heat required to make it through our winter nights; their small size likely caused by a rough year as well as varroa problems.…

How to Perform a Hive Autopsy on a Dead-out

Posted on January 12, 2021January 12, 2021 by MiKayla — 3 Comments

It’s a sad fact that bees don’t always make it through the winter. Varroa mites are the root cause more often than not, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong: The colony could be too small to keep warm, have diseases, be overrun with varroa, or not have enough stores. Sometimes,…