Still not Back to Normal

We went right back to cool days again after this weekend with more frost and temps only climbing into the 40's today. The sun did peek out a bit and I saw some activity from four of the remaining six hives, but the winds were quite high so the girls were not getting out much. Of course the two that did not show any activity are the last remaining single chamber split and swarm from last year. I fear I may have been correct when I mentioned that the single chamber hives were the ones I didn't think were going to make it. The sad part is that even as late as the day before the last big snow storm they were very much alive and taking feed. One of them was even out and about Sunday so if they starved it was within the last two days.

For starting out so well and booming with rain and swarms 2012 proved to be a really bust year for the Small-Hold after the hot dry weather hit. The dearth pretty much sealed the fate of 90% of all the bee expansion I undertook last Summer.

At any rate there is no rain in the forecast for about a week and they are saying sunny and maybe into the 50's tomorrow and 70's by Friday so perhaps I will get some definite answers as to what I have to work with this year. Starting with only four weak and battered hives will at least mean I managed some slight growth over the drought year from hell but judging by my Winter losses I do not have high hopes for a lot of swarms this year either and the remaining hives are going to need time to build up before I can make any splits.

We have tree buds forming but still nothing blooming that I can find. The Henbit, False Nettle and dandelions that I noticed blooming back in February have been killed off by the two large snowfalls we got and have yet to begin blooming once again. We should almost have some daffodils and Redbuds blooming as well by now, but so far nothing.

I had hoped to also make it through Winter with a large stockpile of firewood to split and store over the Summer but that didn't happen the way I expected either. I split another big load yesterday and I still have maybe half a cord left over remaining to be split. Burning has been at a relatively slow pace the last week and I don;t see any hints at it needing to be picked up as yet but I have used a large amount of what is typically laid back for the next Winter this year. So in fact I am behind in that area as well.

One more week to official Spring and we can;t claim it came early this year as yet. We didn't even get my typical few weeks of false Spring when I do my major brush clearing either.

I am so ready for Winter to be over with and pray for a much better year than 2012 at this point.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!