After a brutal late April cold snap, we were finally able to start our splits and make up most of our nucs. So far, the heavy, wood beams have been successful in keeping gangs of marauding Raccoons out of the newly-created nucs.

Never in 20 years have I seen this kind of damage to my nucs.   I would have expected this sort of devastation in bear country, but not in S.E. Michigan.   The culprits:    RACCOONS!   They took out my entire line of re-queening nucs at the end of June, setting me back a whole year.  I'll devise a better, anti-raccoon system in the Spring of 2019.