Looking at my summer 2012 post and how many nucs and hives were thriving, and comparing it to the reality of the bee yard in early 2013 is a stark contrast. It was a blow to lose my strongest hive and the 3 nucs I had tried to start earlier in the year, but I still went into the winter with 4 hives. It was a rough fall with nearly no fall nectar flow. 3 more died by Feb. 2013
The lone surviving hive from 2012 is H6. I hope they make it as March and early April can be rough. We just got 4 inches of snow on 3/26/13. I have two packages of bees on order, this time I'm trying Carniolans which come recommended over Italians by Queen Right Colonies.