Allen asked for posts from people who read but don't post often, aka lurkers.

I am a hobby beekeeper with three hives after starting with two.  I started
beekeeping after struggling with pollination issues in our small vegetable
garden for several years.
I started keeping bees in 2000 after reading most of the winter of
1999-2000.  I attended the EAS summer bee schools in
2000 and 2001, where I met Dewey Caron, Sue Colby, Rickie Cooper, George
Imirie, and many others.  I found the bee schools very helpful.  I am
the kind of person who reads instruction manuals, so I assembled a modest
library on beekeeping, ranging from practical to research.
I read "The Hive and the Honeybee" from cover to cover, although of course
I did not retain all of it, and still consult it and other resources
regularly.

I started with Italians from York (both queens superceded) but switched to
Carnolian in 2001 (my bees did not overwinter successfully 2000-2001).
I bought my queens from Strachan because they participate in Sue Colby's
OSHU breeding program.  I have not been
fully satisfied.  Supercedure has been a constant problem, and mutt queens
(pretty much all other local beekeepers keep Italians)
seem much more likely to result in aggressive hives.  I have also not seen
consistent laying patterns, and I question the program's
decision to breed for larger winter cluster size.  I wanted Carnolians
precisely because of their small winter cluster and conservative
use of honey when overwintering, plus their beautiful white comb.

I have been concentrating on cut comb honey since starting beekeeping.  I
did not care to invest in an extractor (an old one has
since come my way) and I wanted to produce a premium product.  I sell the
cut comb to local farm stores for $5 a section;
they mark it to $6.50 to $7.50 and sell it.  They sell all I give them.  It
more or less covers my costs, not my time, and
certainly not my mistakes, which are numerous.   I eat the second-quality
sections and give a fair amount away to friends, neighbors,
and family.  My next-door neighbor is an expert in medieval meads so this
past season I spun out a few gallons of honey and traded it
to her for 50% of the mead she will make from it.

I test and treat for varroa.  I used the commercial formic acid packs the
one season that they were available, they seemed to
work well, and since I did not keep the packs for a long time, I did not
see the leakage problems that caused them to be withdrawn.
I've experimented with sugar dusting and was not impressed.  Apistan strips
seem to work, but I dislike putting poisons in the hive,
even though I follow the instructions to the letter.

My property is a partially wooded acre, but there is excellent forage from
both crops and extensive wildflowers in nearby
conservation areas.  I get a fairly steady nectar flow if the rain is good,
and the bees work goldenrod and purple loosestrife late into
the fall.  I wonder if these sources are part of my overwintering problems,
see below.  I have introduced many friends, coworkers,
and colleagues to beekeeping, and two other couples are now keeping bees,
one in a rural area, one in a small backyard in a Boston suburb.

My overwintering experience has not been good.  I live in the Boston
area.  If the winter is relatively mild, with one or two
weeks of subzero temperatures interspersed with thaws, the bees do
fine.  The winter before last they did so well that one hive exploded in
the spring and
pitched my first swarm.  When the winters have a solid month when it never
gets above freezing, the bees die in their hives,
inches from untouched honey.  Wrapping with felt paper does not seem to
change the odds, although I haven't had enough
trials to be sure one way or the other.  Fall feeding does not seem to
help, as the bees prefer the goldenrod and loosestrife to sugar water,
and the hives tend to be nearly honey-bound by the end of September.

Last winter was a terrible one, with a bitterly cold January and a record
amount of snow.  I tried emergency feeding.  Mid-February was the first time
I dared take a peek, two hives had already died. One hive made it into
March but was extremely weak and succumbed a few weeks later.
In February, after discovering the two dead-outs, I ordered two packages
and queens from  Bolling Bee Farms in Jackson's Gap, Alabama.
I have been interested in their Grey Caucasian line since discussing them
with Rickie Cooper at one of the EAS bee schools.  I have tried
to order in years past but they were always booked by the time I
called.  This year they accepted my order and cashed my check.

Alas, Bolling Bee is under new management, and whether it was the
transition or the poor weather this spring, they did not deliver the
packages, and "A swarm in July isn't worth a fly."  I am very disappointed
and very much miss the buzzing of the bees around the hives
on a summer afternoon, the smell of the curing honey, and the quiet
contemplation of these fascinating insects.

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