MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • May 2, 2021
None of the colonies that my beekeeping buddies and I set up last year survived the winter. They most likely succumbed to a virus they picked up after being infested with varroa mites. We’ve got anecdotal evidence that other beekeepers failed to overwinter their colonies, too. We also had to do something with the honey we’d saved to feed to the hives this spring. We’d hoped they’d need every drop, so had not planned on taking any for ourselves. But in the face of the complete wipeout, we turned my garage into a honey extraction site. The process was sticky, sweet and therapeutic. ~ Christine Burns Rudalevige