Greetings from Kansas

[kenglert]

Hey everyone.  I started with 1 hive last year but lost it over the winter.  Not exactly sure what happened.  I had them out in a field of 220 acres.  Plenty of wildflowers/grass/etc...  but at the end of the summer the bees did not have any honey stored.  I put a feeder on top in hopes of sustaining them through the winter but they didn't make it.  I've ordered more bees this summer and I'm hoping for a better outcome.  I'm looking forward to any help/advice I can get from this forum.
Thanks in advance

[AllenF]

Welcome to the forum.   With the hive you lost, how many frames did you have drawn out in wax  and how many had honey going into winter?

[kenglert]

8 of 10 had wax in the hive box but only about 2 or 3 in the super.  No honey stored at all.  In speaking with my reference/buddy here he thought maybe the strange weather we had here last summer had something to do with it.  He has 7 hives and he didn't get nearly as much production as he'd gotten in the years before.  We tried to putting a top feeder on them to sustain them but it didn't work.  I'm changing locations this year as well.  I'm moving them into the city this year.  It didn't look like there was any disease processes going on in the hive either.
My guess is they starved, unfortunately