I’d like to better document my gardening and beekeeping activities – if for no one other than myself. Currently, my only public record of my gardening activities is via #thereitzfarm on Instagram.
I also found over the last year that people are interested and even invested in my bees. I started beekeeping in April 2017 with the arrival of my first package of bees . Toward the fall, I started using Facebook Live to record videos of hive inspections. People seemed to enjoy seeing the bees and maybe learning a little more about them.
As I prepare for a new garden season, starting a blog seems like a nice way to organize my thoughts and share things that are happening on the Reitz Farm.
I also discovered this past week that my hive did not survive the winter. A huge disappointment, which you can hear in my voice in the video below. Most likely I accidentally caused a moisture issue during an early inspection in January when I added a frozen pollen patty, but I’ve also sent comb samples for testing. So, more to come on the final reason why my hive died.
So, I’ll be starting a new hive this year. The silver lining to losing my hive is that it gives me an opportunity to document what the first year of beekeeping looks like (even though it’s technically my second year).