Oregon bees

The first time we purchased bees was in Oregon in 2009.  We put them in our apple orchard and really enjoyed watching them grow.

We got this package from a local beekeeper.  I was really greatfull to get the bees this late in the spring, but the queen never really took off.  I was new so I never really realized what was wrong.  Eventually I purchased a new queen, but being naive I released her into the hive the same day I removed the old queen.  The bees balled and killed her. Luckily I never killed the old one and reintroduced her into the hive.  All in all, they never even filled one hive body all summer and then we moved to Montana

I took the hive to my folks place in Idaho and left them over winter.  They never made it.  So I started the next summer with two packages from Rossman Apiaries.