>Allen dick: In Particular, I'd like to hear from those who read BEE-L and
seldom or never write.

Hello All,

My wife Lori and I noticed that the number of bees in our area went to zero.
We decided that having a couple of hives (I have mine she has hers) would be
good for the ecology.  We are in our second year and are having a lot of
trouble.  We've had lots of swarms, missing queens, bought terribly mite
infested nucs to help broodles colonies, sting problems, and lots of other
trouble.  It's been quite a ride.

We spend a terrific amount of time worrying about our bees.  We have no
intention of selling honey; we are planning on giving it away.  This year
after buying those infested nucs, my wife's colony still had a queen, but
the mite level was so bad and we started seeing deformed bees so we decided
to treat it now with api-life var (reading the package is really scarry).  I
left mine alone since it had been broodless for such a long time.  I had
some hatched queen cells but we have a lot of birds that just sit around and
pick the bees off.  I was sure that I was queenless and on the verge of
having a laying worker.  I was a mess worrying about my bees, but Lori was
sure things were fine.  She kept pointing out there were no bullet cells,
and there were a few regular looking (about 10) capped brood cells, and that
the bees were calm, and appeared to be happy.  We waited one week, things
looked the same, week two, same thing but now I saw polished cells in a
beautiful pattern, but nothing else no eggs.  This is so new for us, I was
really concerned, I was feeling like I needed to do something, but Lori said
no give it another week.  This week I went to look and to my complete
surprise, (Lori was right and said I should have listened) there were eggs
everywhere.  I was so excited, it was a terrific experience.

Lori and I are both computer programmers.  This is a hobby for us, but we
really want to help, and we want to get to the point where we understand
what needs to be done to help the bees.  I think we realize now that that
time may never come but that it will get easier with about 15 years of
experience (give or take 10 years).  In the mean time we get some
satisfaction that even doing it wrong may help the feral colonies, and the
bees are so cute and interesting, it is terrific fun.

Ron & Lori
Hobbyist Bee Keepers, Maryland
- Repopulating the environment one swarm at a time

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