In a new year, new beekeepers get new bees and vow to make some changes Plus, they make the best of a bad situation by extracting honey. A lot of honey. By Christine Burns Rudalevige Nine-Layer Russian Honey Cake is laborious, but so worth it. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer By the time you read this, I will have installed two packages of replacement bees into hive boxes sitting on a hill in Wiscasset overlooking the Sheepscot River. None of the colonies that my beekeeping buddies, Ann and Mark Light, and I set up last year survived the winter. We didn’t send bee remains off to a lab, but we know our girls most likely succumbed to a virus they picked up after being infested with varroa mites.