In Memory...

of the hives I have lost this winter.

Principality of Monaco, I requeened you twice, gave you all the brood and resources I could spare and you didn't make it. 

USA, you lost your queen late in the season and I didn't have a spare queen at the time. I gave you queen cells from Japan and honey to spare, but it wasn't enough.  

Croatia, you didn't get enough honey stored for the winter despite my last ditch attempt to heavily feed you sugar water in the fall.  

Note to self, don't name hives after countries that are experiencing cataclysmic events like tsunami's. The name proved itself and you always were a star crossed hive. 

France's death was a mystery to me. You had a great queen, lots of honey reserves and I still lost you.  

I'm sad to have lost so many this winter, but there is always hope. The hives that are still alive are survivors and didn't have a problem adapting to Albuquerque's cold winters, hot summers and 2011's drought and I plan to split the strong ones into 2 hives to restock the hives lost.