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For the first time, ALL THREE of my hives survived the winter! All of my preparation for winter worked as expected and the bees endured the polar vortex and record snow in February. While I am thrilled that my bees made it through this crazy winter, I am now faced with some critical decisions involving overcrowding and an aging queen.
The queens are already hard at work laying eggs. This means that by May each hive will house upwards of 60,000 bees! An overcrowded hive is likely to trigger swarming. To avoid this, I really should attempt to split the hives.
To add to the overcrowding issue, one of my queens is entering her 3rd season. Queens only mate once in their lives, so they eventually lose the ability to lay fertilized eggs. This often happens in the 3rd year. To avoid failure of the hive, I should replace the old queen with a new queen.
As I see it, there are two ways to solve these dilemmas – the natural way and the proactive way. In a natural environment, the overcrowded hives would swarm and the aging queen would be deposed by a newly hatched queen. If I want to be proactive, I could test my beekeeping skills to split the overcrowded hives and remove the 3 year old queen, replacing her with a new queen. My instinct may tell me to take the natural route, but my experience tells me not to leave anything to chance.
My plan is to use a balanced approach. I will split 2 of the hives and let nature take its course on the 3rd hive. Once the hives are split, I will decide what to do about my aging queen. It’s going to be an exciting spring!
Like the aging queen bee, some portfolios can become ineffective over time. Some years everything works and your portfolio thrives. Other years can see market adjustments, interest rate changes, life events and other factors that may influence the productivity of your portfolio. That is why an annual review is so important. I encourage you to be proactive with your portfolio. Call me today at 651-290-6114 to schedule your review.
Bee well,
Jonathan Kvasnik, ChFC
Financial Advisor
Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Jonathan B. Kvasnik, ChFC, Registered Representative Advisory services offered through Securities America Advisors, Inc. Cherokee Investment Services and Securities America are separate companies.
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