I have one hive that is doing great. One died last fall, and another hive that does not have enough honey to live through the winter.
I fed the weak hive around Christmas, but I don’t want to open the box since now since the weather here is in the 20s and quite cold. If it warms up on a weekend I will feed again.
The good hive has two deeps and a full medium super. I am thinking of moving over the super to the weak hive.
I gave both hives pollen patties, but neither is eating much.
I am researching places to buy a package or a nuc.
Last spring someone delivered package bees at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack, but I heard about them after the fact. I heard it ws quite a party with all the local beekeepers there waiting at 3 in the morning for the truck. This is not far from where I live. This year I am trying to find out if there will be more.
Last year I got my nucs from Paul at Hivedepot.com (Rhode Island). Paul drove a truck right up to the house in West Nyack, and I had my pick of species. I think he was coming back from a trip to Georgia and he made stops all along the way. I have his phone number and will call him soon. I emailed him, but I don’t think that he checks his email that often. If he is coming through again I will order nucs from him. Paul has very good prices for nucs; about the same as a package from betterbee.
I want to try other races. The Italians went pretty nuts in the summer when the weather was bad and they robbed from each other, which is why I think there is one great hive and the other hives suffered. I tried feeding them, but they were so aggressive that I had trouble getting near the hives without a suit.
You can email me if you are in the lower Hudson valley, New York, Southern, Connecticut, or northern New Jersey, and we can coordinate things. If you know of another run coming through the area with packages or nucs, let me know so I can decide how to go on ordering my next round of bees.
