Hello to all,

I kept bees about 8 years back when I was in High School. Unfortunately they died and I never could figure out why. Last summer while gardening I decided that I would add some bees to the landscape. My dad and I also were having a dsipute about our apple trees. We barely get any apples on these trees about 20 to 30 on each. I bet him that if we get honeybees that there will be twice as many apples on these two trees. The trees are about 6 yrs old now. I noticed for the past few years that the amount of honeybees spotted on clover has significantly decreased. I remember a time when you couldn't walk through clover with out your shoes on. I was able to find some packages for pick up on April 9th, and some Nucs on May 14th, so I am really excited!

I wish that I would have had the internet back then. I think that my 1st hive died from mites. I remember going to the hive in spring and saw a descent amount of bees and then slowly through mid summer they decreased. Then one day I went out and all that was in the hive was the queen and like 6 o7 workers.

Also could anyone tell me about making splits your 1st year. I've seen it discussed here, but I'm looking for info specific to 1st year hives and expansion. I've just been reading this forum for about two weeks, so I thought I would enter my 1st post. So happy to be back with the Internet!