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What we suspected for a week now was confirmed today: we lost one of our hives this year.

For the past couple of weeks, we'd been concerned that there wasn't much activity happening at the entrance to Peach, the hive with a queen from Georgia. But I hefted the hive and nearly broke my back - so I knew they had enough honey stores to make it through spring (with concern, in fact, that they'd have too much!). Compared to their sister hive, Cream, Peach just wasn't active enough. Eventually, we stopped seeing bees come and go from the hive's entrance altogether. And then it was quiet. And we knew.

Upon inspection today, Peach remained quiet, and when I popped the lid, I was certain. Of the three supers it had, the top one was filled to the brim with honey stores. So they hadn't starved. No moisture in the hive means they had good airflow, so they probably didn't freeze (in the traditional way). But in the second super is where we saw the cluster: dead in place and just about the size of a softball ...when it should have been bigger than a football. This colony was too small to survive even above-freezing temps.

Above photos: the cluster frozen in place.

Going frame by frame, we investigated to see if there were any signs of disease (there were none), or swarm/supercedure cells, which are created when the hive needs to make a new queen either in preparation for a swarm, or when a hive is queenless (none of those either). Then we had to break apart the cluster and get to the grisly work of cleaning out dead bees.

But in the center of the cluster, we found something extraordinary: a queen cell. The bees had instinctively clustered around the cell, which tells me she hadn't hatched yet. They were doing everything they could to keep her warm - after all, a hive can't survive without their queen. Just inside was a gnarly little half-developed queen bee ...confirming my suspicion.

It appears that Peach, our "strong" hive, had been so strong late this winter that they prematurely swarmed. When a colony swarms, half of the bees leave with the old queen, seeking out new housing. The half of the colony that remains makes a new queen from an egg their old queen laid, which would explain the cell. It looks like Peach swarmed too early, leaving too few bees to withstand the cool temperatures. They just didn't have the numbers to stay warm. Chances are, the swarm died somewhere out there too.

It's a hard lesson for this new beekeeper, but I take solace in the fact that it was out of my control and when we could do something, we did everything right. I mean, everything. They had plenty of food, mouse guards and ventilation. But like a Greek tragedy, in the end, their strength was their weakness.

Thank you, honeybees, for your hard work, endless dedication and invaluable lessons. Rest in peace, Georgia Peach.