Then Disaster Struck
Devastating Loss!
As Spring turned to Summer, our hives were doing well and swiftly growing. We had received strong packages from Spicer Bees, and the weather was perfect for their growth and development. We would regularly perform hive inspections and added a 2nd box on top of each hive as they filled their first box. I didn’t expect to get honey the first year because, though possible, it’s rare as the bees were starting in all-new equipment with no drawn comb. But they were moving right along and we were doing so well that we started thinking there was a possibility of a 
little honey in our first fall! Rather than trying for honey, we thought, rather than medium honey supers, we’d give the bees deep brood supers so they could draw extra comb for use next spring when we got more bees or did splits. That even went well!
Going into the winter we had 9 strong hives and one that seemed to be getting weak. We kept an eye on it but it eventually looked like it wouldn’t survive so we merged it with another hive and were down to 9 hives heading into our first winter. Not bad! It isn’t unusual to lose a hive from time to time for various reasons beyond your control. Se we weren’t worried.
In late December, I had a friend come down with his thermal imager. With that device, we could scan the hives from the outside without having to open them to check the bees in the cold. It senses the heat signature from the cluster and shows up as a big bright ball meaning all is 
well. Some of the heat signatures were bigger than others, but they all seemed like they were doing well. We checked again in late January and 2 or 3 looked like their heat signature was smaller and less bright than the others. It appeared the harsh winter temperatures may be going to claim 2 or 3 of our hives. They may have been going through their food stores too fast.
At the end of February, we had several days of warm weather reaching about 70 degrees. The bees loved it and there was lots of activity outside the hives. The bees were busy doing their house cleaning and scouting for other food sources. Unfortunately, rather than cooling down gradually late in the afternoon and eventually going below freezing in the early evening, something different happened. Early in the afternoon the temperatures 
drastically dropped very quickly. Mother Nature was giving us something beyond our control and making it a nightmare. This happened 3 more times over the next two weeks slowly but surely killing 8 of our remaining 9 hives. One of the 9 survived but wasn’t strong enough to keep going. When the weather broke a couple of weeks later and it was warm enough to quickly enter the hives, we found the final hive had died as well.
We were devastated and couldn’t figure out what the heck we could have forgotten to do or did wrong! Bob blamed himself for the complete loss of the Apiary! Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Hood Brook Apiary was crippled and didn’t have the finances to recover from such a huge loss and was ready to give up. We decided to sell off our equipment and people said I should have the Maine Department of Agriculture come out and inspect them. So we made the call and made an appointment. Jennifer from the Maine Department of Agriculture came to inspect our hives and equipment so I could sell it.
This is when we found out what the cause was and that it wasn’t our fault. We had done nothing wrong. The inspector said I had two hives that appeared to have had a high mite count, but it shouldn’t have been enough to kill them. But because all the hives had many small clusters of dead bees rather than one large cluster, due to the rapid temperature drops, they didn’t have time to re-cluster as they needed to and simply froze to death. She said the weather pattern was unusual and a lot of beekeepers in Maine lost many hives. Lucky for them, they had a honey product last fall that they could reinvest into repopulating their dead hives with new bees. Sadly, we didn’t. It was a total loss.
Knowing it wasn’t our fault, Bob thought about it long and hard and decided to give it another shot. I got clearance from the state inspector to sell whatever we needed to restart something. We figured selling gear would get a few bucks for one or two packages to restart as more of a hobby again with only one or two hives. So that was that. A hobby beekeeper, starting a full apiary, getting wiped out in the first year, and is now back to being a hobby beekeeper. All our plans, hopes, and dreams went out the window.
So in the spring of 2023, an old friend asked how things were going. Bob told him of the loss we experienced, and that our full apiary days were over. Bob explained that he decided to go back to being a hobby beekeeper with only a couple of hives. To our surprise, Bob’s friend said “No, you aren’t done! I’ll help out and get 2 packages of bees for you.” Bob mentioned that on his Facebook page and a couple of other people responded asking how they could help!
Things were looking up! With their help, we had enough for 3 packages of bees from Spicer Bees and a “nuc” from Holt’s Apiary that we got from money made selling some equipment.
At that point, Ethan Noll, a friend who is also an Aggie grad, who owns a farm 40 minutes away said he’d like to get into raising bees too. His father had been a beekeeper years ago and now he owns the farm. So, now we were going to have some bees at “The Funny Farm in Vassalboro, Maine and 1 hive at our original Hood Brook location. So, we put 3 hives at his farm (and he got 3 as well) and got a nuc for our original location. I had 4 hives in the spring of 2023! I was still reeling from the major loss but was excited to give it another try. Everything went well getting the 
bees and installing them into the dead hives I had remaining. With the comb already being drawn out from the year before, these bees took off very fast! But by the time the fall came, We were able to get about 45 pounds of honey! We were a bit excited as we headed into the winter of 2023-2024.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly but tragedy struck again. In the middle of the winter, a severe windstorm with lots of damage and down trees all over Maine. The National Weather Service called it a Straight-Line Wind, a name that differentiates it from a tornado. Many Mainers had no power for days or even weeks!
This storm hit The Funny Farm with strong, gusty winds coming across the fields and blew over 3 hives, breaking them open and exposing the bees to the severe cold. My friend, his son, and his wife suited up and went out in the storm to try to save them. Sadly, a total of 3 hives were lost. Since we both had 3 hives each, We looked at it like we each lost 1 and ½ hives. Not devastating, but disappointing. After the number of hives lost the year before, this one we could work with!
Now, we’re off to the Spring of 2024 for another season. Fingers cross but we’re coming bak!
