Greetings! It is a new season for the bees, and it looks to be wonderful in central Texas, at least in comparison to last year’s epic drought. I took no honey last year, and even then had little hope that my hives would make it through the autumn and winter months, but amazingly I lost no colonies! The Venus hive, especially, is a surprise to me, as they were tiny last year. You may recall, it was a four-frame nuc I installed by hanging the Langstroth frames sideways. The colony never made a frame of comb of their own all season, and in November were only possessing three of the four old frames, this inside the cavernous space of the Venus hive. But, surprise, they made it. I took this video last week. Since then, I have removed the insulating blanket.

On a strange note, perhaps sad, I have lost touch with Shawn, the maker of this hive, and his website is down. If he is alive and well, I wish him the best.

--love, Jack