We lost a lot of bees

Packages of New Zealand bees (top) ready to be moved into their hive equipment (bottom).

What's new on the farm:

Last week, I mentioned that Andrew would be checking all of our wintering bees.

We were incredibly disappointed to find that so far, at least half of them didn't make it.

As we feared, the toll from the Varroa mites that invaded our hives last fall was too hard on them. Even though we got rid of the mites before winter, they weakened the bees drastically.

The remaining hives that we have aren't in great shape and are on the edge of failure as well.

We need consistent warm and sunny weather for the next few weeks. That way the bees can leave the hive and find food to build their strength.

It seems to be a lot to ask for right now on the "wet coast" with a lot of rainy days in the forecast.

On the bright side, our New Zealand packages arrived on Sunday. On Monday, Andrew and the crew installed all of them into their hives. We even had the New Zealand beekeeper who sold us the packages travel from NZ to help us!

These bees will help replenish our lost hives this season. They'll also give us a head start on growing the hives strong enough to produce a crop of honey this year.

For now, keep your fingers crossed for us for some good weather. It seems that we are always relying on the whims of Mother Nature to favor us.

Looking at the packaged bees through the screen.

Are you eating your honey with yogurt yet?

Do you remember Marble Slab Creamery? If you're not familiar, it's an ice cream chain where you can choose mix-ins to add to your ice cream. They put it all on a cold marble slab along with the ice cream, then chop everything up and mix it up right in front of you.

I started doing the same in a bowl with plain yogurt, a small scoop of our Creamed Honey, and chunks of strawberry.

I know, yogurt + honey is a well-known, obvious pairing. However, since our honey is thicker and not drizzle-y like liquid honey, I never thought to add it to yogurt before because I didn't think it would mix great (and I am a little lazy).

But it turns out the yogurt + strawberry juices make enough liquid to "dissolve" the honey, plus you add in a tiny bit of elbow grease and it mixes together well.

I love fruit-on-the-bottom cups of yogurt, but they all have super high amounts of sugar in each serving. This is a much better option where you can control the amount of sugar, and get the bonus benefits of raw honey. Do you have a better technique? Leave a comment and let me know.