All 8 colonies survived treatment-free

Today was the 1st official forage day of the new 2016 :) So great to see bees fly again and collect pollen.
I had 8 colonies go into the winter and all 8 are still alive and kicking strong :) As you might know I do not treat my bees with anything. I just keep letting the weak bees and varroa die and keep propagating the survivor bees/varroa in the next season. So far this seems to work well for me and my bees (and for the surviving Varroa, the one that does not kill its host) for a few years now.

I could see all 8 colonies bringing in pollen today which is a good indicator that they all have a laying Queen.

collecting pollen from early flowers


We have several Alder trees around our property and bees are busy collecting pollen from it at this time