Beekeeping

Bees were installed in 2013, spent the first summer trying to build up comb and colony with the meager nectar and pollen flow up here, and overwintered, but the rear colony died out in early 2014.

The remaining hive built up enough resources to overwinter until 2015, but made no extra honey for the beekeeper (me). If I can't find a way to grow bee forage sufficient for these bees, I'll have to relocate them to my bee outyard near Socorro, where there's enough forage for them to make honey.

By May 2015 the second hive had no more bees. Only if there's sufficient nectar and pollen around the area for them will I bring hives up here from the Valley.

I hived a swarm from Socorro on June 20, 2015 and placed it up here in the near hive shown in the photo. As of April 2016 it had overwintered fine and was thriving, with some syrup and some fruit-tree blooms and now tamarisk flowers. Expect to move it to Socorro by May. I'm what's called, dismissively by beekeepers, a bee haver, as I don't manage bee diseases or queens, just let the bees try to survive.

By summer 2016 the three Socorro hives had crashed. I brought all the woodenware home and cleaned out all the wax-moth larvae and waste. Unless I find a bee yard in the Valley, I conclude there's no future in beekeeping here.