First Bee Colony Dead

As I don't know what I'm doing yet, I feel compelled to observe the advice I've been given fairly strictly. The folks at Jones Bee told me to never open a hive unless the outside temperature was above 50F. Cool weekends and my bicycle commute to work have kept me from checking on my hive.

I've been concerned about the bees most of the winter. This first winter with the bees was a bit like those first weeks with Cole, when, as a new parent, I wasn't ever certain if the house had gone too quiet, if he'd stopped breathing.

I picked up an inexpensive stethoscope from the medical school bookstore and headed out to check on my girls. When I applied the stethoscope to the hive body, I didn't hear so much as a buzz. I cracked open the hive and found thousands of dead bees.

I dropped an email to my state Department of Agriculture bee inspector and I chatted with other bee keepers. Everyone's best guess was that during one of the particularly cold spells, the bees could not move horizontally in the hive and starved. I'd felt horrible when I saw the carnage. I felt even worse when I considered the bees starving to death, surrounded by food.