We had let this hive go, a couple years ago, after the bees died during the winter. Then, last month – the empty hive after two years of hosting nothing but a few flies – had some bees milling about. Quite a few – and I wondered … And then this month, a lotta bees – and now – all of these new bees, they are all full bore at work, preparing the hive for winter – with pollen laden bees returning about 1 every second during the day.

They no longer use the original entrance – it’s swallowed up by growth, being at the bottom – but a couple frames up, there’s a gap where the top set of frames had rotated slightly – the stack comes askew – and the bees seem to find this entrance to their liking.

It’s so perfectly lovely – we feel blessed – to see an abandoned hive come alive again. And all we had to to was leave a hive out in the yard, year after year, until …