Is it just me, or is everyone else having to feed their bees this year?

[mmmooretx]

I may step up to the "Survival of the fittest!" mode later, but I only have one hive I started on 2 June. When I installed my NUC from B Weaver I never saw the queen. Two weeks later Laura Weaver sent me a free replacement, she is very helpful. I saw the new queen 3 days later when I checked to see if she was out. I never saw her again. Towards the end of June I basically bought another NUC since most of my original brood had hatched and I had no queen. I ended up adding a second deep and separating the two hives with a sheet of newspaper and they joined well. Most of July was build up and the hive is now doing well. I am working an SHB issue but have seen no mites yet. Yes I may be nursing them but I have spent nearly $300 in bees alone for one hive and I will do what is needed to have them ready for winter. In the future when my base set of hives are doing well and I have some NUCs for backup I will probably do the "Survival of the fittest!" philosophy, which is probably good for the species, but for now I will spoil my girls and do what is needed to get my first hive through the winter.
Bee happy...

[BeeGhost]

Beeghost, the bad things about alfalfa: They tend to spray the fields during the day (least around here) and they usually cut it down before it blooms. I spoke to a friend that grows hay and alfalfa for cattle feed, he said they cut it down before it blooms because the flower take too much of the nutrients out of the plants.
C2

Hey Batman,

I dont know about in your neck of the woods, but when I took a drive the other day there were alfalfa fields blooming all over the place!! Some were being cut but there was still forage available. And to confirm what you said, yes the farmers do cut before bloom to sustain the highest nutrient values of the plant! As far as spraying, I was unaware of that and that wouldnt be a good thing at all!! I don mind feeding, I just mainly want a yard close to home!!

Fuzzy- If I didnt feed my bees they would have faded out by now. They dont have the luxury of something blooming all the time for city bees!! Infact the two hives I have in town are booming and saving my butt as far as honey production. In some ways I do believe in survival of the fittest, but I also dont want to lose the hives i have now either because I dont want to waste gas money chasing swarms all over the place next spring to build up my hive count like I did this spring!!